Astoria News - Community Reports
... done by and / or with the help of community volunteers
Astoria News 2012
Astoria News Brief for 2012 will be posted here.
Astoria News 2011
John Henry - Country & Stand Up
January 24, 2011 / Astoria / Queens Buzz. I attended John Henry's performance at Waltz-Astoria Friday night. During his hour long set, he performed about ten to fifteen tunes, with instrumental accompaniment on several of them.
He strummed the guitar, and sang his sad songs, at times his voice trembling. His songs, like many country & western songwriters, have a personal quality to them. But his songs are also sprinkled with punch lines and written in a sort of caricature about his family, his friends and himself. The audience seemed to enjoy his playful mocking humor, as there was a stand up comedian quality to his performance. There will be more on John Henry's gig at Waltz-Astoria at a later date.
Astoria News 2010
Columbus Day Parade 2010 In Astoria
October 11, 2010 / Astoria / Queens Buzz. It was a beautiful warm Saturday when hundreds of people lined the streets and joined in the 31st annual Columbus Day Parade in Astoria. Walter Karling, a local photographer was kind enough to shoot a bevy of photos for us which we used to create a photo album / slide show of the event.
As you can see by the photos, the parade was attended by a number of campaigning government officials including two members from Congress Joe Crowley and Carolyn Maloney as well as Michael Giannaris who is campaigning to replace George Oronato as State Senator and Aravella Simotas who is campaigning to replace Giannaris in the State Assembly.
Click here to view photos of the Columbus Day Parade 2010 in Astoria and click here to view other Astoria News Briefs.
Water Walk In Astoria Park
Three Days Of Vehicle Free Shoreline August 1, 8, & 15
Astoria / August 2010 / Queens Buzz. For three weekends, Sundays in Astoria Park between 1 pm and 7 pm, will be vehicle free along Shore Blvd which cuts through the west side of the park along the East River from south to north. During this time there will be live entertainment provided by a multitude of local groups, including music, dance and theatrical performances. There are also a number of activities scheduled for the kids and there's a beautiful olympic-sized public swimming pool that's literally only feet away from Shore Blvd.
Water Walk Is A Community Park Event
The event was organized by the Astoria Park Alliance in collaboration with NYC Department of Transportation and Green Shores NYC. Volunteers are helping with set up and take downs, running 
events and cleaning up. Each Sunday was given a theme - 8/1 Kids & Family Fun, 8/8 Taste The Neighborhood and 8/15 Live Music.
A number of local organizations participated including: the Greater Astoria Historical Society, LIC Community Boathouse, Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee, Red Storm Drum and Dance Troop, Curious Frog Theatre Company, Aztec Dance Company [see photo], FDNY, Creative Vibrations Yoga & Dance Studio and Queens Harvest Food Co-op. This is the second year of the water walk program and based on its participation and attendance its future looks promising.
The Astoria Park Alliance has been instrumental in helping the City Park system keep up Astoria park and in bringing programs to the park to deepen its use by the community. The photos shown here were provided to us compliments of Kim Waber and much of the information contained herein was given to us by Jules Corkery and Robert McMinn.
Summer Solstice Celebrations
At Athens Square and Socrates Sculpture Park
June 21, 2010 / Astoria & LIC / Queens Buzz. Socrates Sculpture Park is hosting a free four hour summer solstice celebration that runs from 5 pm to 9 pm tonite. Reggie Watts, comedian / musician, headlines the program and he is expected to perform around 6.30 pm. Dance Entropy, a modern dance company based in LIC, will perform splash which has been choreographed for fourteen dancers with water as the theme. There will also be face painting, the performance of a solstice ritual and a crafts making workshop. Families are invited to bring food for sunset picnics. 2 PM - JUST IN - Free kyaking, compliments of the LIC Boathouse, will also be available and they say conditions are nearly perfect.
Meanwhile in Athens Square Park Astoria Music Now has a musical program that runs from 2 pm until about 8 pm. Every hour, around the turn of the hour, there will be at least one or two different musical performances by local musicians / groups.
Fathers' Day & Another Great Day
June 20, 2010 / Long Island City, LIC / Queens Buzz. The weather this Fathers' Day is expected to continue to be sunny and warm and not too humid, just like Saturday. We went over to Socrates Sculpture Park where they held a workshop for cyclists and then a decorating event, which was followed by a bike parade which ended up at Queens Bridge Park.
The parade was followed by a barbeque where several organizations set up tables to promote activities such as kyaking on the East River, composting in an urban environment, Green Shores which is an East River Waterfront environmental group and Astoria Music Now which is a non-profit organization that organizes musical events in parks and other venues.
Both Socrates Sculpture Park and Athens Park are hosting Summer Solstice music events on Monday, June 21st which is officially the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. Click here to view a photo album [with slide show button] of the Socrates Sculpture Park Bicycle event.
St Demetrios Hosts A Great Greek Fair
May 24, 2010 / Astoria. This past weekend was near perfect weatherwise and everywhere we went, from Flushing to Astoria, people were out and about enjoying themselves.
On Saturday we attended a conference hosted by the Chinese American Real Estate Association in Flushing where we went looking for information about the state of real estate financing in Queens. We stopped by the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria where an Astoria Music & Arts music fest was going on.
On both Saturday and Sunday we visited the Greek Festival in Astoria, where St Demetrios put on a good old fashioned fair, complete with an assortment of rides, prize games complemented by Greek food and music. On Sunday we toured a couple of the hotspots of the LIC Artists Festival. We'll post more on this fair sometime soon, including a slide show.
Astoria News Briefs 2009
Pasta History 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 to view other Astoria News briefs. Or click this link to view a map showing the location of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
Happy Columbus Day - Fall Is Here
October 12, 2009. The Columbus Day Parade along Steinway last Saturday was a success. The Greek Festival saw pretty fair attendance, given the cool, windy weather. And the pool tournament provided a few insights into the world of billiards which appears to have changed significantly from my childhood days.
Click here to see a report on the billiards tournament at a pool hall in Jackson Heights. Click here to view a few photos from the Greek Festival in Flushing Queens. Click here to view photos from last year's Columbus Day Parade in Astoria [we hope to upload new photos later this week].
Century Bikers Greeted In Astoria
September 16, 2009. Sunday was certainly a beautiful day for a bike ride through the Queens borough. Century Bike Riders came rolling through Astoria Park last Sunday on their way through the 15 to 100 mile course they had signed up to ride. They were greeted warmly by the hospitable rest stop workers of Astoria Park as shown in the photo to your left.
Rest stop staffers were volunteers of the Queens Botanical Gardens, the Astoria Park Alliance, Green Shores NYC and Transportation Alternatives [the sponsor of the event]. Click here to enter page two of the Astoria Park photo album showing some of the riders as well as the volunteers.
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