Dance, Jazz, Theater & Spring
QueensBuzz / March 18, 2010. The first weekend of Spring and Daylight Savings Time will be mostly sunny with daytime temperatures in the sixties. Oh yeah. Details for all the following events and more are included in the Queens Events section which you may click to using the link on the tool bar above.
Dance. Green Space in LIC is hosting Take Root and Fertile Ground performances on Saturday and Sunday evenings respectively [click into members calendar for best desciption of details]. This is your last chance to enjoy the Borges & Piazolla Tango at Thalia Spanish Theatre in Sunnyside.
Music. On Friday in Astoria there's jazz at the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden as well as performances at Waltz-Astoria. On Saturday, in Jamaica, at the Afrikan Poetry Society there's a Brasilian jazz performance that looks really good.
Theater. Flushing Town Hall is performing the Music Man Jr. on Thursday and Friday nights. This is the last weekend to see Measure For Measure at the Secret Theatre in LIC, and your first weekend to see Othello which starts on Thursday. Also at Secret on Saturday there's Secret Burleque.
Film / History. On Saturday in LIC the Flux Factory is screening a new art film. On Sunday the Queens Historical Society is presenting a slide show / lecture on how women's role in the Abolitionist movement lead them to seek their own equal rights.
Vaughn College - Queens NY
A Step Back In Time & A Vision Of The Future
Jackson Heights / March 14, 2010. I spent the better part of a fascinating day visiting Vaughn College, which used to be the Casey School of Aeronautics near LaGuardia Airport. Vaughn College is one of the nation's leading educational institutions dedicated to the arts related to flying. The arts include aviation [flight simulation and classroom training], engineering and technology [airframe, power management and mechatronics] and general management. I suppose these days it might be more appropriate to call it the arts of air transportation.
Click here to read about Vaughn College of Queens NY.
Flux Factory Flexes
LIC / Long Island City Queens / March 5, 2010. At long last I made a connection with the Flux Factory. They’d been on my radar for about two years, during which time I had made several feeble attempts to contact them via email and telephone. 
Over the course of those two years, I remotely watched them wrangle through ‘life threatening’ issues like finding a new space, as their former ‘factory’ had been committed to another purpose, and for a while they ran a ‘virtual factory’.
The Flux Factory is an amalgam of artists that seems to operate as a sort of socialistic whole. Yeah, I’m not sure exactly what that means either, but intuitively I think it's an apt description. Click here to read the full story about, including numerous photos of, the Flux Factory in the LIC / Long Island City neighborhood of Queens.
St Pat's For All Parade Photos
St Pat's Day Parade Growing In Stature
Sunnyside & Woodside / March 8, 2010. By all accounts the St Pat's Day Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside was a big success. We estimate that on this fine day the audience count was easily in the thousands [two to three thousand is our estimate]. This was significantly up verus last year, quite possibly due to the nice sunny weather which included temperatures in the fifties, although there was a cool breeze.
The St Pat's For All Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside has been in existence for eleven years now. It's interesting to note that the parade legacy only goes back little more than a decade, given that Sunnyside and Woodside were considered the Irish sections of Queens for the better part of the last century.
The parade began out of a controversy in the late nineties. The Manhattan St Pat's Day Parade forbid non-heterosexuals to march in their New York City parade. Click here to read the rest of this story including a slide show and a link to our album for the St Pat's Day Parade photos 2010 in Sunnyside and Woodside.
Pasta Perfect In Astoria & LIC
Astoria / March 1, 2010. Monday night, March 1, beginning at 7 pm the great-grandson of Emanuele Ronzoni, Alfred Ronzoni Jr., will give a presentation of the history of the Ronzoni Macaroni Company which his great-grandfather founded and which was once based here in Queens. This evening was put together by Bob Singleton and is part of the interesting social, culinary and historical tapestry of Queens.
Click on the photo above or this link to go to the Queens Events calendar to get details or click this link to view a map showing the location of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
Chinese New Year Parade Queens
Photos Of Chinese New Years Parade In Flushing Queens
Flushing / February 20, 2010. This story includes our report and photos of the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing in 2010. The weather was near perfect for a mid February parade, as it was sunny and dry, and the temperatures were in the low forties. Photos of the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing Queens include a mix of photos of the costumed parade participants as well as the large crowd.
We estimate that over 10,000 people came out to see the Chinese New Year cultural extravaganza in Flushing. The parade was followed by a number of cultural events given by both traditional Chinese and Korean performers.
Click here to read our reports about the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing, including a slideshow and photo album.
"Lights, Action, Camera"
Queens Fashion Week Underway
Models, Designers and Papparazzi
Astoria & LIC / February 18, 2010. Some of the top designers with Queens connections collaborated with many up-and-coming Queens models to strut their stuff at the Queens Fashion Week opening night. The event took place tonite at the Standard Lofts, a recently renovated factory building turned residence along Northern Blvd at the foot of Steinway Street.
About twenty eight models participated in the event, walking down the runway with beautiful new clothing, designed to complement their figures and forms. The models consisted of both females and males, nearly all of whom I believe were in their twenties. Click here to read our report about the opening night of Queens Fashion Week.
Valentine's Day Restaurants In Queens
Queens Restaurants / February 8, 2010. Valentine's Day is next weekend when lovers far and wide enjoin in the great romantic migration, for a night out on the town. If the night is done smartly, it comes complete with a thoughtful card, a small box of candies and her favorite flowers; followed by a nice romantic dinner.
The origins of Valentine's Day are not well documented. It's believed to have been named after Saint Valentine who was apparently a Catholic martyr who died over 1500 years ago. Today the holiday is not associated with religion so much as flowers, candies, cards and dinners. And the holiday spokesperson is now Cupid, a Roman god of desire, and from what we hear, quite a mischief maker.
Click this link to go to a brief guide of Queens restaurants for Valentine's Day where you will find links to Queens restaurants we've reviewed. It's worth noting that most of these reviews are positive because we've selected some of the best restaurants in their categories in Queens. It's also worth noting that most of these restaurants do not currently advertise on this site, so there wasn't any quid pro quo. That said, in time we will certainly try to convince as many of them as we can, into advertising on this site, because we have a large discerning dining audience that includes you. Enjoy.
Queens Jobs Market Bests NYC & U.S.
Queens Unemployement Rates / December 2009. This report outlines the general dynamics of the Queens Jobs market. Included in this report is a look at the composition of Queens industries and labor market. It appears that the employment picture in Queens improved from the summer into the fall, but in the December report unemployment ticked back up again. Click here to read our full report about the jobs market in Queens NY. Click here to read the whole story about the Queens jobs market, including an overview of the size and diversity of Queens jobs market.
Queens Real Estate
Real Estate In Queens Neighborhoods: Astoria, Jackson Heights, Long Island City LIC Neighborhood, Sunnyside, Woodside
Queens NY / December 2009. This is a report on the Queens real estate market in Queens for the latter half of 2009. This analysis includes looking at apartment rental prices, as well as condo, co-op and home prices and availability in the Astoria, LIC / Long Island City, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside and Woodside neighborhoods. While we found these neighborhoods mirrored / trailed many of the national trends, we found some interesting differences, including differences from neighborhood to neighborhood. Click here to read the Queens Real Estate market analysis 2009.
Kwanzaa Celebration In Jamaica Queens
Jamaica Neighborhood / January 3, 2010. The Afrikan Poetry Society sponsored a free viewing of the now famous Kwanzaa film entitled 'The Black Candle'. The film is a documentary about the origins of Kwanzaa in the U.S. and around the world. The film shows how African Americans began to reconstruct their culture following four centuries of enslavement and discrimination in this country. The celebration contains many universal guidelines to be used by groups, even nations, struggling to regain their lost freedoms and self-direction. There are lessons in this film for everyone.
Queens Restaurants - Queens NY
Click this link to go to the Queens Restaurants section of this site or use the search function below or the Business Directory above to look for something specific.
Donovan's Pub
Irish Pubs In Queens
Woodside Sunnyside Restaurants / February 2010. I had occasion to visit Donovan's Irish Pub in the Woodside section of Queens NY. Donovan's is about as Irish an Irish Pub can get outside of Ireland. We took a different tack in this review and decided not to review their hamburger, but rather take a look at some of their other pub food offerings.
Click here to read our review of Donovan's Irish Pub in Woodside Queens, including a short interview with former detective Jack Donovan, brother of the pub owner.
Cavo Greek Restaurant
Modern Greek Cuisine Astoria
Astoria Restaurants. I had occasion to visit Cavo, a haute cuisine restaurant with an aesthetically beautiful restaurant decor located in the heart of the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. Cavo is run by Tommy Demaras and partners who seem to pay attention to every detail to ensure one's visit is quite apart from whence one comes. Richard Farnabe recently started as the Executive Chef and has brought the modern Greek cuisine to new heights.
Click here for a full review of Cavo, one of the leading Greek restaurants in Astoria.
La Portena Argentine Steakhouse Jackson Heights
Jackson Heights Restaurants. La Portena Argentinian Steakhouse isn't exactly the kind of restaurant that would come to mind when you think of Jackson Heights ... that is unless you live there.
La Portena Argentinian Steakhouse is located at 74th Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. It's quite a popular restaurant which is what first caught my attention. While Indian, Bangladeshi, Thai and Nepalese restaurants first come to mind when thinking about Jackson Heights / Elmhurst restaurants, there's an entire Latin American flavor to the restaurant mix in the neighborhood - and the food and service are both very good. Click here to read a restaurant review of La Portena Argentine Steakhouse in Jackson Heights.
Queens Shops / Shopping - Queens NY
Click this link to go to the Queens Shopping & Shops section of this site or use the search function below or the Business Directory above to look for something specific.
Yoga In Queens
Astoria Shopping / Long Island City / January 6, 2010. This is a report about my experience taking a hot vinyasa yoga class at the Yoga Room studio in Astoria on New Years Eve. I came to it a bit skeptical but walked away with a changed opinion. Hot yoga is a combination of sauna and a yoga workout.
Click here to view our full report on hot yoga in Queens NY.
Astoria Furniture Stores Have It All - Queens
Astoria Shops / 2009. The furniture stores located on the southern end of Steinway Street in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens seem to have something to offer to just about everyone. This part of Steinway is a furniture shopper's mecca, offering plenty of choices from classical colonial, to urban apartment living to bedding to suit nearly every spine.
I took a quick trip there, which is easily accessible via the N, W, G, R or V subway lines and within a sturdy walking distance from Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside. Just up the street from Steinway is Broadway, where you'll find the Omonia Cafe where after a good morning or afternoon of shopping, you can kick back along one of the sidewalk tables ane enjoy a bit of coffee and some delicious baked goods. Click here to learn more about the furniture stores in Astoria Queens.
Mens Clothing Styles - Queens
Shopping Queens / 2009. Esquire Men's Clothing Store continues to serve the greater Astoria and Queens area, as it has for nearly thirty years.
The shop is owned and managed by Frank and Kevin Adhami, and their father, who is in his eighties, still visits the store on an almost weekly basis.
Esquire is located along Steinway Street between 30th and 31st streets. The store contains a wide selection of men's coats, suits, casual wear, shoes and men's accessories like belts and ties.
This story will provide some information about the store itself as well as fashion recommendations for the Spring and for job hunters.
Click this link to view a story written on Men's Clothing In Astoria Queens NY.
Queens Neighborhoods - Queens NY
Click this link to go to the Queens Neighborhood section of this site or use the search function below or the Business Directory above to look for something specific.
