YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN
Hell’s Kitchen Doorman Has a Handle on Filmmaking BY JANE ARGODALE There are, as the narrator of a TV series once told us, “eight million stories in the naked city” — and even more can be found if you take into account the parallel lives led by working artists with fulltime jobs. Thus, by day, residents INDIGO CHILDREN continued on p. 7
BP Plays ‘Triple No’ Hand in Affordable Housing Gamble BY ALEX ELLEFSON Borough President Gale Brewer has dug up an obscure and rarely used provision of the City Charter to fight for affordable housing in a controversial Chelsea development. The borough president invoked ADORAMA continued on p. 4
AMY JUST TRUSTS
The only “non-famous” member of the Stiller family, singular comedic sensation Amy workshops her new solo show, Aug. 23 at Dixon Place. See page 18.
Photo by Nicole Javorsky
A visitor to the High Line stops to stargaze.
SCOPING OUT STAR STUFF Amateur Astronomers Take a Night Flight to the High Line BY NICOLE JAVORSKY While Amateur Astronomers Association of New York member Carey Horwitz adjusts the telescope to my short stature, he explained that this astronomy club looks mostly at double stars and planets. They’re limited by the pollution in New York City, he noted. Within minutes of arriving at the weekly stargazing event at the High Line, I realized how little I know about astronomy. Yet, just a few moments later, I was looking at Jupiter through the eyepiece of one of the seven high-powered telescopes set up along the W. 14th St. portion of Chelsea’s elevated park. Faissal Halim, another member of the Amateur Astronomers Association (AAA), helped me figure out how to use the telescope, by pointing the contraption at a building to start me off. It still took me a few tries to see anything, but thankfully Halim remained patient. Several times a week, at various locations in New York — including the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Central
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Park, and Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza — AAA members like Horwitz and Halim point their telescopes at planets and stars, and give passersby a hands-on chance to ponder our place in the universe. Every Tuesday night, April through October, the AAA holds observation sessions on the High Line. They also present free monthly lectures at the Museum of Natural History from October to May, in addition to offering classes in astronomy and astrophysics (earlier this year, they held a class on the basics of astronomy, as well as a night sky photography workshop). Horwitz and Halim are two of over 700 members in this astronomy club that has been active since 1927. Members do their own observing — but as the lectures and classes show, they often opt to share their love of astronomy with the public. An AAA member for the past decade, Horwitz became interested in stargazing when, as a child, the things he was STAR continued on p. 12 VOLUME 08, ISSUE 33 | AUGUST 18 - 24, 2016