No Angels At The Laughing Devil

New Comedy Club Opens Doors To Press & LIC

January 18, 2012 / Long Island City LIC / Performing Arts / Queens Buzz. I attended the Grand Opening night of the Laughing Devil Comedy Club in Long Island City Queens tonight. They had a full line up of comedians, who they had charged with lightening up the Queens NYC press corps, which wasn’t exactly a roomful of jokesters. Steve Hofstetter, one of the club owners, is shown in the photo to your left.

Steve was the first comedian on stage. I arrived shortly before he walked off stage and the next comedian, Moody McCarthy, quipped how Steve hadn’t exactly set the house on fire. But the night was young and the time soon began to fly as we were treated to a full barrage of laughing gas, some of which was delivered by comedians from Queens. Steve returned to do a second set, which turned out to be one of the more entertaining performances of the night.

Click here to view our full report about the Laughing Devil Comedy Club in LIC.

Photos - NYC Marathon Queens 2011

November 7, 2011 / Long Island City / Queens Buzz. It was a beautiful day for a marathon. The temperatures were in the low 60's and it was sunny and dry. About 47,438 runners came through Long Island City and we photographed quite a few of them, along with the crowd that gathered outside to greet them.

We plan to add quite a few more photos, but we thought you might be interested in browsing through over 100 photos we selected in a slide show.

Slick here to view our report and see the slide show containing photos of the NYC Marathon in Queens 2011. And have a nice week.

The Astoria LIC Film Festival

Film Festival Showcases Local Film & Musical Talent

October 16, 2011 / Long Island City Neighborhood / Fashion, Film & Music / Queens Buzz. I attended some of the weekend long second annual Astoria LIC Film Festival. The Astoria LIC Film Festival presented 54 new films, including documentaries, comedies, shorts and super shorts; and thirteen music videos. Dennis Cieri and Bonnie Rush are the founders and driving forces behind the event.

The opening and closing parties were held at the Z Hotel, which is one of the new hotels in Long Island City offering both a subterranean bar downstairs from the lobby, and a rooftop bar with a panoramic view of the city.

The films were shown several blocks away, at the Secret Theatre and the E-garage, which are in the same complex; as well as at the Variety Boys & Girls Club of LIC. I attended the music videos segment of the festival, which was curated and hosted by an LIC musician, Gus Rodriguez, Sunday night at the E-garage.

Click here to read the rest of our report on the second annual Astoria LIC Film Festival, including a review of many of the music videos, and excerpts from interviews with founder, Dennis Cieri and some of the festival producers, directors and actors.

Astoria LIC Film Festival

Second Annual Astoria LIC Film Festival Oct 14 - 16, 2011

September 30, 2011 / Long Island City LIC / Fashion Film & Music / Queens Buzz. On Friday, October 14th the second annual Astoria LIC Film Festival begins. The weekend long event opening night begins at 6 pm at the Z Hotel at 11-01 43rd Avenue in Long Island City [212.319.7000]. The opening night is a social with a cash bar that will last into the evening where film goers will have a chance to meet and talk with producers, directors, actors and actresses and writers.

Simultaneously there will be entertainment provided at another of the film festival venues, E-garage at 44-02 23rd Street in Long Island City. An open mic begins at 5.30 pm, followed by improv at 7.30 pm and comedy acts beginning at 9 pm. The graphic to your right is of one of the films being shown this weekend, a comedy / drama about what happens in Park Slope following a neighborhood kid's mother's death.

Click here to read our report on the Astoria LIC Film Festival 2011.

Compost Solstice: Oh, Home On The Grange …

... no deer or antelope seen playing on Queens’ Brooklyn Grange

September 30, 2011 / Long Island City LIC / Green Queens / Queens Buzz. I took a quick trip out to the country Friday night, boarding the 747 elevator at 37-18 Northern Blvd in LIC [bordering Astoria & Sunnyside], and landing on the building rooftop where there’s a large spread of land used for urban farming called the Brooklyn Grange [we’ll tell you more about the name later in the story].

The occasion for my foray up to the rooftop farm was the Western Queens Compost Initiative’s [WQCI] first annual Compost Solstice. The fundraising event had been postponed a week due to the inclement weather last Friday. The WQCI is a program started by Stephanos Koullias with the help of some Con Ed money [won as a settlement from the 2006 blackout] and the support of Build-It-Green, which is a home improvement business in Astoria. Build-It-Green acquires and then sells / recycles building materials.

Click here to read our report on the Western Queens Compost Initiative's Compost Solstice at the Brooklyn Grange.

Hurricane Irene In Queens

Weather System Impact On Queens, Evacuation Centers & NYC Emergency Response Decision

August 28, 2011 / LIC Long Island City Neighborhood, Astoria Neighborhood & Sunnyside Neighborhood / Queens Buzz. I spent quite a bit of time traveling the streets of Queens this weekend where I learned more about NYC’s new Office of Emergency Management and emergency shelters in Queens. I also spoke to quite a few folks both before and after the weather system arrival and I’m going to share with you some tidbits from those conversations, which may help put things in perspective.

We’re going to start with the Evacuation Shelters, one of which we toured at Aviation High School on Queens Blvd in Long Island City. And we’re going to end with photos of the aftermath, at least what there was, including a brief discussion of the economic impact of essentially shutting down the city for 2 – 3 days. The photo above shows some cots inside one of the Queens evacuation centers and the photo to your right shows a fallen tree limb Sunday morning along Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside.

Click here to read more about Hurricane Irene in Queens.

2007 Sea Odyssey Returns Home

New Age Love Seafarers Contemplating Next Mission

July 1, 2011 / Long Island City LIC Neighborhood / Art Exhibits / Queens Buzz. I just returned from one of the more interesting evenings I’ve had in quite a long while. The Flux Factory kicked off a summer long exploration of NYC waterways with an interactive slide show presentation by Sonanya Ahmed of Queens and Reid Stowe, who according to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not, holds the record for being the longest voyager to remain at sea without interruption.

Sonanya was at sea for 306 days and Reid stayed out upon the high seas for another 846 days [Reid was at sea a total of 1152 days]. They sailed the Atlantic, the Pacific and bodies of water in between, charting their journey via a GPS satellite, creating journey path art and other artworks along the way.

The journey bears similarity to the sort of isolated endurance and self sufficiency required to travel to and from the planet Mars. So imagine packing for a trip where you’re not going to go anywhere near land for three years, and you’re going to have to survive with what you bring and nature’s bounty.

Click here to read the rest of our story about the kick off event to the Flux Factory’s Sea Worthy summer in Queens NYC.

LEAP Showcases Dance In Queens

Sensuous, Dramatic, Traditional, Frivolous & Very Entertaining

June 17, 2011 / Long Island City LIC / Dance & Theater / Queens Buzz. I entered the Little Theater of the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center [LPAC] on a recommendation of the performances by Steven Hitt, Managing Director of the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. Steven had been one of the pivotal people, who in collaboration with the Queens Council on the Arts [QCA], had put together the show.

There were six separate pieces by local choreographers, which were to be performed by about a dozen dancers. The variety of dances was analogous to a buffet given by a high end hotel that had invited six of the best restaurateurs to select one dish with which to serve their guests. Each of the choreographers had created works that were different from one another, ranging from Indian traditional, to modern dramatic, to Germanic sensual to … Superman.

Click here to view a slide show and read more about the LEAP Dance Project Showcase and modern dance in Queens.

Dance Festival Mixes Motion & Art

Green Space Blooms Festival

April 8, 2011 / Long Island City / Dance & Theater / Queens Buzz. I attended the first evening of the Green Space Blooms dance festival Friday night. It’s the fifth year of the Queens modern dance festival, which runs through April 17th at Green Space in Long Island City [see Queens Events for details].

There are about thirty dancers and choreographers involved in the festival, making it the largest event of this nature in the Queens thus far this year. On opening night, three dance companies performed their works, only one of which I photographed, out of costume at their rehearsal.

Click here for our review of the Green Space Blooms dance festival 2011 in Queens.

Maids 3:337 - Life As Theater

Kept Off Balance While Struggling To Find Meaning

February 21, 2011 / Long Island City LIC / Queens Buzz. I find myself being increasingly drawn into the four part experimental theater entitled Maids. I reviewed the first show last fall [use the search function to find it] and I just returned from having watched, witnessed or participated in the second show, which was held this past weekend.

The production explores a couple of themes, but its texture contains so many dimensions, that I can only begin to give you a sense of them in this review. The stage included the hallways of LaGuardia College, a loading dock and freight elevator, the back stage and the main theater. Having been to the first show in this series, I found myself beginning to get comfortable with the sense of discomfort one feels when we, in the audience, aren't completely anonymous.

Click here to read the rest of our review, including a slide show, of Maids 3:337 at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Long Island City.