By Karen Rempel Many girls dream of their wedding day. Not me! I dreamed of twirling in glamorous gowns and going to glittering galas with arm candy men. Every day after school I swooned at the thought of being Ginger, alone with Gilligan on his island. I was born just before the Summer of Love,
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Hummel
By Jeff Hodges In the early 1990s I traveled to Germany to shoot a promotional video for the Goebel Porcelain Company in Bavaria, Germany. At that time Goebel was the manufacturer of the Hummel Figurines—those ingenuous pastel porcelain renderings of children and animals that lurked on our grandmothers’ bookshelves with a cloying cuteness that inspired
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Warhol and Wallowitch —a Gay Affair
By Robert Heide I first met the photographer Edward Wallowitch on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where I was studying theater under the tutelage of the great professor Alvina Krause. She had learned ‘The Method’ by working in Russia with the great master himself Constantin Stanislavsky, author of An Actor Prepares. This
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Using Speech Recognition to Control Your Desktop and Programs
By Asa Bacon Years ago, I acquired a physical disability, that affected my fingers as well. Typing slowly with many errors becomes a nuisance and time consuming. It would be great if my computer allowed me to dictate to it like a digital secretary. Well, as of 2007 it can. With the debut of Windows
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How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Compliments
By Ira Ellenthal When I was running, or helping to run, such publications as The Daily News, U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic and, prior to that, a dozen trade magazines, I received many compliments, most of which made me wary. Let’s face it, when we have power, others tend to butter us up.
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Our Way Out of This: I Think Not
By Robert Kroll AUTHOR’S NOTE: This essay was written exclusively for the denizens of the West Village; that is not only because WestView News doesn’t circulate much beyond that boundary, but also because I wouldn’t entrust it much to those living west of the Hudson River, east of the Gowanus Canal, or north of 14th
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From Ancient Sparta to Modern Denmark: The Rationalization of Eugenics
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Humankind has grappled with the ethics of eugenics for millennia. The practice can be traced, famously, back to ancient Sparta, which was revered for its military prowess and position as one of the most powerful city-states in all of Greece. The philosophy of selective breeding was promoted by the philosopher Plato, who
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James E. Murphy, Consultant
By Alexis Parrin Jim Murphy was an accomplished fund-raising professional with more than 30 years of experience in leading fundraising operations, creating strategic initiatives, and securing substantial contributions and public support for educational institutions and not-for-profit organizations. In addition, he was engaged on the frontlines of major political campaigns in the United States and abroad.
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It’s Just Politics
By Penny Mintz A retraction is in order. Contrary to what was reported here last month, the Downtown Independent Democrats had never declined to endorse Carlina Rivera in her bid for re-election to the City Council in District #2. On the contrary, at their meeting on December 7, 2020, DID enthusiastically endorsed Rivera. They also
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VID Endorses City Council Candidates
By Edward Yutkowitz Village Independent Democrats (VID) has endorsed Erik Bottcher, Chris Marte, and Carlina Rivera to represent lower Manhattan in the City Council. The endorsement votes took place after the candidates addressed VID’s membership and the public at a virtual forum at the club’s December general meeting. More than 120 members of the community
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Being Black Isn’t a Crime
By Arthur Z. Schwartz It was almost Christmas Eve when I sat down to write my last WestView News piece for 2020. I have a habit of glancing at my NY Times feed numerous times a day, as this crazy year dishes up new news by the minute. I saw a report, for the first
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HOW SWEDE IT IS
HOW SWEDE IT IS: WestView News’ Photo Editor and advertising campaign producer Darielle Smolian married Swedish journalist Johan Eriksson, in a socially distant but personally intimate ceremony near the historic Bow Bridge in Central Park on December 16, 2020. Joined by a handful of family and friends both in person and online, the couple overcame
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Oxidative Phosphorylation: Life’s Energy Source
Abstracted from “A Scientists View of Almost Everything” by Mark M Green Let’s see how the food we eat is converted to the energy we need to keep us walking, talking, thinking, sleeping and yes even eating and all else it means to be alive. Everything we eat and drink contains hydrogen atoms. All atoms,
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Participate as We Cover Local Elections
By Frank Quinn Last month, WestView News contributor Penny Mintz wrote an informative article on the upcoming 2021 city council elections, providing essential information about local races that probably won’t receive much attention in the larger citywide press. Interestingly, Ms. Mintz is an active supporter of one particular candidate, a fact she dutifully noted, yet
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Polly Trottenberg – Good Riddance
by Arthur Schwartz* Just before Westview went to press, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced that she was leaving the de Blasio Administration in December. She may wind up as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Trottenberg is a City official who never met a Community Board she liked. She “endured” the public process regarding
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Oxidative Phosphorylation: Life’s Energy Source
Abstracted from “A Scientists View of Almost Everything” by Mark M Green Let’s see how the food we eat is converted to the energy we need to keep us walking, talking, thinking, sleeping and yes even eating and all else it means to be alive. Everything we eat and drink contains hydrogen atoms. All atoms,
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Palestinians Persecuted During the Pandemic
By J. Taylor Basker The Pandemic has not only caused illness and death to Palestinians but provides an opportunity for Israel to increase its persecution and policies of destruction in Palestine. International law mandates that Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible that Palestinians have full medical care. However, it has made it difficult for
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Book Review: Children’s Piano Primer 1 2 3 Do Re Mi
An insightful new way to teach young kids (ages 4-9) to read and play music. By Hannah Reimann, illustrated by Lisa Kaiser New Piano Primer is 1 2 3 Do-Re-Magical Most everyone remembers the scene in Sound of Music when Julie Andrews bursts into song in the hills of Austria, bicycling with her famous
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Urban Native Artists Show at the Revelation Gallery
By Jill McManus The charming Revelation Gallery has played a welcome part in the Village art and music scene for the last couple of years. This month the gallery is taking the rare step—even in the Village—of featuring outstanding Native American/Alaska Native artists who are living in urban settings, but whose work reflects aspects of
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New York Time Capsule
By Robert Heide It’s Christmastime 2020 and I am finding myself walking down the street singing “Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas – Keep the Yuletide bright. Next year all our troubles will be out of sight – so have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now!” As I write this I am also thinking of
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I’m From Joe’s Hometown
By Kieran Loughney On November 7th the flash came late in the morning, not from a cable network or a feed on the cellphone, but as news has travelled for centuries, directly from the street. From windows open wide on that warm morning, the sound of cheers, whoops and honking horns reached up to our
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Who’s the Dolly Parton Patron Saint of Curing AIDS?
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. There are two Dollys who have made impactful contributions in the annals of science and medicine, one is a sheep and the other is a country music star. Dolly the sheep was the first large animal that was successfully cloned. Dolly Parton the country music star made a $1 million donation
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Wenceslaus
By Jeff Hodges When my daughter is at a symposium and the leader asks the participants to “tell us something we would never guess about you,” she’ll often respond: “When I was two, I had a pet raccoon named Wenceslaus!” One snowy Christmas I saw a big raccoon walking back and forth on the road
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Holly Claus Awakens Our Dreams
By Brittney Ryan Holly Claus asks children, “What do you dream to be, and what will your special dream contribute to the world?” She inspires them to reflect on how their dreams will help others; to see that aspiration, imagination, and hope are what make us who we are; and to realize that they are
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DAVID NORMAN DINKINS, 7/10/1927-11/23/2020
By Carol Yost The whole city mourns the loss of David Dinkins, our first and, so far, the only Black New York City Mayor (1990-93). He was 93 years old. His wife Joyce passed away just one month earlier. He is survived by their two children, David Jr. and Donna. He had already survived major
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Who You Are in Times of Uncertainty
By Arabella Oz What’s happening with the world? What’s happening with our country? What’s happening with my health? My job, school, apartment, family? This year has pushed our capacity for managing not knowing. We are hard-wired to detest uncertainty. We move through linear time and we like to know what we’re moving towards. We feel
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The Evolution of Winter Holidays: From Saturnalia to the Christmas Season
By Anastasia Kaliabakos The months of November and December are typicallyconsidered to be the height of the “holiday season,” as people eagerly await popular holidays such as Thanksgiving,Chanukah, and Christmas. Celebrating these types of holidays, seems to be quite an integral part ofsome people’s culture and a way to wrap up the calendar year. But
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Could a Win at Beth Israel Be Near?
Maybe Beth Israel Hospital won’t be closing! By Arthur Schwartz In April, as I was about to sue—again—to stop the new hospital, I got a letter from Beth Israel’s lawyer: “Don’t sue. We aren’t moving forward at this time.” Fast forward to November. Beth Israel representatives told the Village Sun on November 13: “All options
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Goodbye Charlie
By Joyce Caruso Corrigan Columnist Charles Caruso passed away on August 6th, only a few hours after Pete Hamill did. No doubt these two newspaper men, products of New York City’s most competitive Catholic schools (Brooklyn Prep and Regis, respectively) are sharing off-color Jesuit jokes at their favorite watering hole: that great Lion’s Head in
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New York Apartment Prices Poised to Drop 20%
By George Capsis The pandemic has sent office workers home to the suburbs, closing offices and restaurants. New York is now a town that even ghosts (and certainly tourists) decline to visit. Hence, apartment rents are precipitously dropping by 10 to 20%. In a riveting online briefing, the Chief Operating Officer of Corcoran, Gary Malin,
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Vija Saved From the Government
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Vija Vetra, a Latvian dancer, is the oldest resident of Westbeth. She is 97 years old. Yet she still travels around the world to perform, at least before COVID shut the world down. When we last wrote about Vija in WestView we described how she had been cheated out of her
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Our Neighbors At NYCHA – New Crisis With Paint
By Arthur Z. Schwartz October saw more revelations about the extent to which public housing residents, especially children were being exposed to lead. And what we learned may be the tip of the iceberg. This an enormous problem: approximately 600,000 people live in NYC Housing Authority buildings; jus less than 8% of City residents, one
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Permanent Outdoor Dining? Government By Fiat—Without Caution
By Arthur Schwartz Back in mid-June, with NYC still in lockdown, and with crowds of demonstrators marching down 14th Street and smashing windows, Bill de Blasio stood on the corner of 7th Avenue and 14th Street and declared the 14th Street Pilot Project, which was supposed to last 18 months, a “great success,” and he
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Joan’s Shanghai
By Joan Klyhn Joan’s Shanghai is a memoir of a childhood in Shanghai in the ‘30’s and ’40s of the 20th century. I am primarily writing it for myself, extending it to my friends, and now to the many people who have shown themselves fascinated with this period in the past. The Kitchen During the
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SUPER HERO VIII: What the Cats Drag In
By Robert Kroll, co-op super and woodworker Close your eyes and try to envision the worst neighbor you’ve ever had in a co-op tenement. Recall the sounds, the smells, the early morning and late evening sights, the garbage bags in the hallways, and, mostly, the words, the slurs, the curses, the slanders, the incessant complaints.
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Reimagining Solutions
By Tamara Lashchyk This pandemic has been hard on us all. Our lives have been severely disrupted as we deal with it, each in our own way. Indeed, many have even found a silver lining: reuniting with families, strengthening relationships, and deepening intimacies. As candidate for the NY State Assembly in New York District 66,
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Mayor de Blasio: Billionaire’s Hand Puppet
How the city conspired with billionaire Aaron Sosnick to withhold information from the East Village community Gregg Singer is the owner of the former P.S. 64 building near Tompkins Square Park. For years, he has been attempting to redevelop the property into college dormitories for students in the East Village. What should have been a
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Getting Specific About Your Anxiety
By Arabella Oz With the arrival of fall, a new melody of anxiety drifts in. What is it? Actually, the word anxiety has grown obsolete in the world of 2020—covering too much ground to be useful. There’s the kind attached to the fear of getting the virus, or maybe more specifically, getting a loved one
