Our Town Downtown November 10, 2011

november 10, 2011 | www.otdowntown.com

Check in at the Bed Bug Hotel artist hunter Fine turns infestations into guerrilla art. (P12)

Survival of the

Suburban StreetS anthony Pappalardo’s book Live . . . Suburbia! recalls a time when teenagers were anarchists and the east village was the holy grail.

(P8) The 21st-Century Challenges of HIV St. luke’s opens new 17th Street care facility.

(P3) photo by Jonathan hökklo | hokklo.com

Beautiful Flaws pulitzer prize-winning the ScaR project comes to nolita.

(P4) In his new one-man show, performer mike Daisey sees blood where we see apps.

(P13)

� N E I G H B O R HOOD CHAT TE R FINANCIAL DISTRICT UPDATES FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET • According to NY1, organizers of Occupy Wall Street have set up a military tent to create a safe space for female protestors sleeping in the movement’s home base in Zuccotti Park. The safety of female protestors was recently called into question after two confirmed cases of sexual abuse in the camp, one of which occurred on Saturday, Oct. 29. The tent will reportedly sleep 30 women and will include bunk beds and a 24/7 staff will also secure the shelter.

• Political Action Table, a group of activists reportedly unaffiliated with OWS, say they collected over 2,000 signatures in Zuccotti Park in favor of extending the millionaire’s tax beyond its current expiration date of Dec. 31. The group delivered the petition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York City office on Third Avenue on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m.

• Local politicians came out in full force last week to support the city and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to remove the barricades on Wall and Broad streets.

“The city’s decision to give back sidewalk space to the community was the right call for Lower Manhattan residents, workers and especially small businesses that have seen receipts decline since barricades were installed,” noted Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. In a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway dated Oct. 13, Council Member Margaret Chin, along with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, asked for a reassessment of the barricades after receiving numerous complaints from residents on Wall and Broad streets. Recently, Chin’s office accompanied representatives from City Hall on a tour of Wall Street to highlight the sidewalk congestion and access problems the abundance of barricades has caused.

• Now entering its eighth official week, OWS has finally secured 24-hour bathrooms. According to a release distributed

by Nadler, Silver, Squadron and Chin, OWS has obtained three portable bathrooms to be installed on a loading dock connected to 52 Broadway, which will be watched 24 hours a day by a security guard.

EAST VILLAGE ST. MARK’S BOOKSHOP SECURES LEASE REDUCTION Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was joined by the president of The Cooper Union, Jamshed Bharucha, and the co-owners of St. Mark’s Bookshop, Bob Contant and Terry McCoy, to announce that The Cooper Union and St. Mark’s Bookshop have reached an agreement that will help keep the 31 Third Ave. store in business.

Instead of paying $20,000 per month, The Cooper Union has agreed to reduce

 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

the store’s rent by $2,500 per month for one year and forgive $7,500 of a prior loan it made to the bookstore. St. Mark’s has agreed that, working with Cooper Union students, the relief will allow it to come up with a viable business plan not dependent on further subsidies.

Contant and McCoy said, “We are sincerely appreciative of the rent concessions Cooper Union has granted us. Our bookstore and Cooper Union are both vital to the intellectual life of our community and we look forward to working together in ways that will benefit us both. We especially want to thank Borough President Scott Stringer for his invaluable efforts in negotiating this agreement.”

“The best way to ensure the longevity of St. Mark’s Bookshop is for the thousands of people who signed petitions to buy more of its books,” added Bharucha.

St. Mark’s Bookshop is a commercial subtenant of The Cooper Union, which leases retail space in the Third Avenue building.

CITYWIDE RESIDENTIAL PARKING PERMITS GAIN GROUND Last week, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Joan Millman heralded the City Council committee passage of a “home rule message” to allow New York State to move forward with legislation that authorizes residential parking permits in the city.

Squadron and Millman sponsored the legislation, which would address increasingly prohibitive parking for residents while easing traffic congestion, pedestrian hazards and air and noise pollution and protecting small businesses.

“A permit system is long overdue in neighborhoods where residents spend hours circling for parking near their homes,” said Squadron. “This legislation empowers communities that want parking permits while protecting small businesses, reducing congestion and helping fund our subways and buses. It’s a win for communities, a win for quality of life and a win for New York.

Thank you to Speaker Quinn, Chair Foster, and Council Member Levin for moving this forward. Now, the state must pass this bill and give communities real choice.”

This legislation gives communities the choice to allow residential parking permits (RPP) on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. The bill contains the following stipulations: 1) On streets with RPP, at least 20 percent of spots would be open for non-permit parking, 2) the permits would directly fund the upgrading and improvement of NYC subways and buses, providing much-needed revenue for New York’s transit system 3) RPP would not be allowed on commercial streets—spaces with meters and other restrictions could not be affected by RPP—and 4) public hearings would be required before implementation of RPP in a neighborhood.

� N EWS While Deaths Dwindle, Startling HIV/AIDS Infection Rates Continue

| By penny gray

St. Luke’s-Roosevelt’s nationally renowned Center for Comprehensive Care (CCC) has just opened a new location on West 17th Street in Chelsea. This brandnew, state-of-the-art facility at 230 W. 17th St. joins the CCC’s other outstanding locations in New York City focused on HIV management.

“We have a beautiful space designed with the patient experience in mind,” said Dr. Victoria Sharp, director of CCC. “We are so excited to offer the community here a true medical ‘home,’ where they may access a multidisciplinary array of services that are coordinated, convenient and of the highest quality in a single location.”

The West 17th Street clinic aims to offer one-stop shopping for its patients’ health care needs. Primary and specialty medical care, including dermatology, gynecology and cardiology, dental services, behavioral health services, acupuncture, massage and other services can all be found under the same roof. This approach not only simplifies treatment for patients but creates more coordinated care between the different health care providers.

Best of all, the West 17th Street clinic is

taking care of HIV-positive and HIV-negative people of all insurance types, be it subsidized APAP, Medicaid, or commercial insurance.

Much attention was paid to the architectural possibilities of health care, so much so that clinic adopted “Redesign,” an architectural model that mirrors CCC’s commitment to efficient and democratic care.

A patient arrives at a reception area, not a waiting room, and moves to a room where all services, including physician visits, labs, blood work and immunization, take place.

“We’re really running a social experiment here. We’ve put a lot of thought into how architecture can affect behavior,” said Dr. Antonio Urbina, associate medical director of the West 17th Street clinic. “And sure enough, by treating all patients with equal respect and dignity, we’ve seen how behavior improves. Last week, I treated a homeless man in one room and a CEO in the room next door. Both of them were receiving the best possible care.”

The advent of the HIV drug cocktail in 1995 has transformed not only the life expectancy of HIV-positive people but also their quality of life—what was once a fatal disease is now a manageable chronic illness. “Thanks to the drug cocktails available, the lifespan for HIV-positive people

has been increased by an additional 46 years. I even have an 87-year-old patient who is doing well.

“But those 46 additional years are not inexpensive; the cost is close to $1.5 million,” continued Urbina. “We have to find a way to keep those costs down. Preventive health care all under the same roof is a great way to do that. If we can keep people healthy, we can keep them out of the emergency room and the hospital, where so much of that cost is incurred.”

While the mortality rates of HIV patients may be on the decline, there are still 56,000 new infections every year in the United States.

“We haven’t done a great job with prevention. That’s where the challenge is,” confessed Urbina. “In all risk groups, rates of infection have dropped, except in one key group. We’ve seen a 40 percent increase in infection in young, gay African-American men, aged 13 to 29. We’re seeing very young, newly infected people; I diagnosed a 16-year-old last week.”

While African-American men are disproportionately affected, there is no evidence to suggest that the group sees any increased drug usage or more sexual partners than any other risk groups.

New HIV prevention strategies must be

Members of the medical team at the recently opened St. Luke’s-Roosevelt’s Center for Comprehensive Care on West 17th Street.

PHOTO cOuRTEsy Of ccc

incorporated to encourage protected sex at all times, as current methods seem to be ineffective. “I guess young people aren’t so afraid of HIV anymore. They’ve grown up in an era when a couple of friends weren’t dying every year from it,” Urbina said.

“They have seen Magic Johnson on TV and they know he’s still alive. But despite the advances, it’s still a disease that causes inflammation, premature aging and all sorts of bodily decline. Prevention needs to be taken seriously.”

The team at the West 17th Street clinic is dedicated to compassion—not just toward patients but toward one another. “We’re exploring the possibility of building a community, and accountability to community, in both patients and health care providers.

This is the future of health care.”

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downtown social Capturing the Remains of Breast Cancer

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s I walked down Mulberry Street toward the Openhouse Gallery in the Lower East Side, I was mesmerized by a photograph visible through the glass exterior of the gallery’s storefront. As I gazed at the image of a woman, bare-chested and marked with a large scar along her breast, I was for a moment paralyzed by its implication—so much so that I did not immediately realize that I had, in fact, arrived at my destination. veronica hoglund The SCAR Project, by fashion photographer David Jay, is a powerful exhibition that documents the experiences of young women who have suffered from breast cancer. The series, which began as a coping mechanism for Jay after discovering a close friend—his girlfriend’s identical twin sister—had been diagnosed with the disease, has now transformed into a five-year project devoted to spreading awareness through raw portrait photographs.

The images, which are as extraordinarily beautiful as they are emotive, each magnificently portray an individual and, more importantly, a human story. Whether as a result of their posture or their gaze, the women in Jay’s photographs seem to reveal their relationship to the disease. After only a few minutes in the gallery space, there is no questioning the honesty that radiates from each picture, an honesty that is anything but artificial.

For more details on The SCAR Project, visit www.thescarproject.org.

“Many schools require students to do drills and memorize facts. A great school engages them in larger themes, asking questions of real importance and giving kids the sense they can help answer those questions.”

TOM BONNELL HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL, AVENUES Former Middle School Director and Associate Head of School, The Dalton School

WHAT MAKES A GREAT MIDDLE SCHOOL? A commitment from Avenues: The World School. When Avenues

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opens in Chelsea in the fall of 2012, Middle School will have a new

students to discover and develop their gifts and passions,” says

identity. Rather than treat it simply as a “pre-high school,” Avenues

Bonnell. Avenues believes that Middle School should be a time of

will treat it as the transitional time it is. Tom Bonnell,

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❯ N EWS A photo gallery of the Ghouls and Goblins and pretty young painted things at Hotel Chantelle’s Week of Halloween Festivities.

Bash Compactor gossip columnist extraordinaire Evan Mulvihill celebrates the opening of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade’s new EV location with Amy Poehler and Matt Walsh.

Bowery gallery curator Derrick Harden interviews London artist Matthew Stone—hopefully we’ll find out about his preoccupation with bending, twisting and contorting the nude form.

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DOE Increases Spots at Soon to Be Opened Downtown School | BY LILLIAN RIZZO

Lower Manhattan’s Peck Slip School has been given an additional number of seats for students, and it hasn’t even opened its doors yet.

The school, at 1 Peck Slip, is scheduled to open at the Peck Slip Postal Office site, just blocks from the Financial District, in 2015. The news came yesterday as advocates such as the Community Education Council, Community Board 1 and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver pushed for a solution to overcrowded schools in the Downtown area.

There will be 20,000 square feet added, or two floors built on top of the Peck Slip building, which will add 180 seats for prospective students. This will bring the total number of spots to 656. Previously, there were only 476 planned for the new school.

According to the DOE, this plan will cost an extra $9 million, which will be paid for by shifting funds within the existing capital plan for 2010–2014. The expansion will also include a gym, which Silver pointed out.

“I am thrilled that the parents of Lower Manhattan will have this expand-

ed, state-of-the-art new school,” Silver said in a statement. “I have been advocating tirelessly for more classroom seats to serve our growing population Downtown, and this expansion of the Peck Slip site is a huge win for our community and for our Lower Manhattan children.”

The DOE noted that there is an additional 20,000 feet in the Peck Slip building currently in use by the U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS has yet to say if it will give this space to the Peck Slip School, but has indicated it is a possibility. The news of Peck Slip’s expansion came as an amendment to the 2010–2014 capital plan.

Currently, the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers St., the DOE’s headquarters in Manhattan, is serving as the school’s incubation site—meaning classes are being held there until 2014. Hovitz questioned how these classrooms would accommodate this increase in size. “Is there really enough room at Tweed to incubate this sizable school?” Hovitz said.

Not only does the question of Tweed’s space come into play, there could still be the possibility that this expansion of Peck Slip won’t be enough to provide seats for Downtown’s growing population.

The opening of Peck Slip is highly anticipated in order to relieve pressure at other local schools such as P.S. 234 and P.S. 89. For the past few years, these schools have seen longer waitlists for their kindergartens and larger classroom sizes as the population in Downtown neighborhoods increases.

“We were very happy to get those seats, I think it’s great for Downtown and Downtown school kids,” said Eric Greenleaf, professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “We’re very appreciative to the DOE, but at the same time we need a lot more seats.”

Greenleaf, formerly a parent on P.S. 234’s PTA and member of the CEC, has calculated the number of students that will be entering kindergarten by 2015.

According to his numbers, Downtown schools will need room for over 1,200 kindergartners in the next four to five years.

Although he has predicted that even before Peck Slip opens it will have a waitlist, he remains optimistic about the latest announcement.

“It’s more than a small dent because it makes a huge difference; 180 seats is a lot,” he said.

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N OV E M B E R 10, 2011 | otd ow n tow n . c o m

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T T N S EA N S P LA A TR

A New Hampshire ex-pat charts the cultural shifts born and bred in Downtown Manhattan

| BY DANNY GOLD

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 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SAHAR VAHIDI

nthony Pappalardo is not a fan of the term cultural historian, especially when applied to him. He is even less enthusiastic about being referred to as an expert on youth subculture. In fact, Pappalardo bristles at those descriptions. “I’m 36 years old. If I referred to myself as that, I’d be a creep,” he said.

It’d be hard to argue, however, that Pappalardo does not possess an encyclopedic knowledge of many of the subgroups popular in the late 1980s and ’90s, whether skateboarding, punk, hardcore or a host of others. In Pappalardo’s new book Live...

Suburbia! (powerHouse Books), which he co-authored with fellow savant Max G. Morton, he chronicles the suburban upbringing and rites of passage that resulted from an embrace of some of these movements, especially with regard to music and skateboarding.

The East Village scene played a pivotal role in the formation of hardcore punk and street skating, among other subcultures, so it’s no surprise that the book traces Pappalardo’s journey from the suburbs to Downtown Manhattan. “This could not happen in Los Angeles or any other city, because in New York, the most recognizable people take the subway, go to dive bars, buy records and get coffee like the rest of us instead of eating power lunches at crappy L.A. bistros in shades—no one cares here,” he said.

Pappalardo spent most of his formative years in Salem, N.H., a typical suburban New England town, before moving to Boston to attend the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. A music junkie, he later played in seminal hardcore bands like In My Eyes and Ten Yard Fight, and found himself living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2002. He describes his adolescence in the book by stating, “I rode a skateboard, a BMX, kept weapons in my locker, cursed a lot, liked heavy metal, lit things on fire, jumped off of stuff and, if anyone I knew would have surfed, I would have been a walking Black Flag lyric.”

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Right: Author Anthony Pappalardo outside an East Village skatepark on 12th Street that’s part of a local school. PHOTO BY JONATHAN HÖKKLO | HOKKLO.COM

▲ LIVE...SUBURBIA!

BY ANTHONY PAPPALARDO AND MAX G. MORTON, POWERHOUSE BOOKS, $24.95

PAPPALARDO’S PLAYLIST FOR HIS GENERATION BLACK SABBATH, “BLACK SABBATH” Hard rock, glam rock, metal...whatever I had been exposed to prior to hearing Black Sabbath seemed tame, lame and a waste of my fucking time. “Iron Man” and “Paranoid” were already in my brain somehow through radio shows and mixtapes, but “Black Sabbath” was the song that left the biggest impression. It barely sounds like music—it’s not conventional blues rock, it’s just three notes and a disturbed man screaming and babbling over it.

SLAYER, “BLACK MAGIC” Sabbath crushed, galloped and crunched.

When I found out there was a breed of heavy metal based on speed, I was hooked—and also terrified. There was always this stereotype of metal being satanic or evil; Slayer lived up to every stereotype from their sheer speed and lack of melody to the pentagrams and other imagery made to piss people off. Just the sight of their logo on your denim jacket sent a nihilistic message to the other people around you the mall, school or woods.

MINOR THREAT, “IN MY EYES” Something happened to me in my early teens...a switch was turned and I woke up thinking heavy metal was a boring, cartoonish fantasy. I didn’t stop listening to it, but its impact was gone. Minor Threat played a key role in making metal seem tame. Punk rock led me to its American cousin, hardcore, and I was hooked. Fast, direct music played by kids in jeans and T-shirts—it was deceptively simple. Minor Threat stand as one of the most popular hardcore bands of all time, but they cannot be replicated.

MISSION OF BURMA, “THAT’S WHEN I REACH FOR MY REVOLVER” WFNX, Boston’s alternative radio station, would play MoB in regular rotation, despite the fact that they had been broken up since the early 1990s. They’d be sandwiched between The Cure’s new single and a Morrissey song—I thought they were as big as those artists. I didn’t realize they were infinitely more influential than “big.” We’d buy any record related to MoB, from Pere Ubu and Wire to countless indie rock bands of the early 1990s that name-checked them.

I’d listen to Burma and imagine what it would be like to see them in the same way I’d wonder what it would be like if Buckner had fielded the ball and the Red Sox had won in 1986.

SEBADOH, “SCARS FOUR EYES” Seemingly overnight, most of my friends went from aggro skate punks living at home to confused kids in dorm rooms discovering these new things called emotions. I’m pretty sure every dorm room in Massachusetts came with a copy of Sebadoh’s record. Luckily for us, Lou Barlow was our cool upperclassman, figuratively speaking, who had been through punk and hardcore and was now digging through the crates for Nick Drake records.

Above: “Before every faction of every subculture was its own section at a shopping mall, kids of the black hole had to band together. Crews of skinheads, goths, punks and skaters put their differences aside and created the United Nations of misfits at every school courtyard. My knowledge of music also grew a lot faster being around a crew like this.” PHOTO BY MARNEE RESNIKOFF Below: “My town wasn’t small, but it was homogenous. Before I discovered punk rock, I was a metalhead and I would have traded anything to watch Headbanger’s Ball with a girl who knew who Venom were. Unfortunately, there were about 10 girls that fit this description in Salem, N.H., and they hated me.” PHOTO BY ANGELA BOATWRIGHT

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A

conversation, let alone an interview, with Pappalardo can be a bit of a trying process if you are not steeped in hardcore music or skateboarding culture—or any late-20th century subculture, for that matter. Answers to questions veer off into many different directions, with frequent references to obscure bands, skateboarders, defunct clothing lines and long-since-closed bars and music venues.

It’s not that Pappalardo is pretentious about these things; they have played such a large role in his life that it seems almost impossible for him to imagine someone in their twenties or thirties without a similar knowledge base.

His voice and mannerisms bear a slight similarity to the director Spike Jonze, which is actually quite fitting considering the contribution Jonze made to the collective culture of the 1990s.

“Anthony is not some historian in glasses and a sweater. He’s a writer with a great eye who loves music and grew up in the skate and punk subcultures,” said longtime friend and fellow writer Ray Lemoine.

“It’s clichéd, but D.I.Y. was always how he did things. He taught all our friends that an idea could not only become real but also successful. That’s his gift: quality creations and giving his friends belief in creating.”

The book itself is comprised of short vignettes from Pappalardo and Morton’s preadolescence through their college years and contains some of the usual rites of passage faced by any suburban teen: falling in love with a genre of music, chasing after girls and highs, skateboarding, building bike jumps and getting into fights.

But it also includes pointed critiques and explanations of what liking a certain band

or clothing item meant, and how important it was for youth during this time to express themselves through these signals.

“The heart of the book is adding context to what you see around you,” said Pappalardo, referring to the way these once-fringe subcultures contributed to the popular culture by which we are now surrounded.

The book also contains of hundreds of photos from the same era. These photos capture the amazing(ly bad) fashion of the time, concerts in small VFW halls, the party scene, the metal kids, the stoners, the goths, the punks, skateboarding and many of the bands. The ’80s and ’90s are portrayed so vividly and accurately that John Hughes would be embarrassed to compare his own work to it.

“We started with an archive, then we just started reaching out to people. We told them, ‘Your moments as a kid are embarrassing, but they’re iconic. This isn’t a Vice Do or Don’t, we’re not going to clown on you,’” Pappalardo said.

What followed was a long cold-calling process, with Morton and Pappalardo simply dialing up the people whose photos they thought would work. The photographer Angela Boatwright was an early supporter, and her seal of approval led to others acquiescing. A corrections officer named Aaron Malejko provided Pappalardo with a treasure trove of house party photos.

In a story reminiscent of an ’80s movie plot, Malejko’s parents moved out of town before his senior year of high school and he decided to stay behind and rent his own place.

The stories shared are a lot more personal. While Morton’s read a little like spoken word poetry, Pappalardo’s are oddly touching. And while they are taken from

Right: “Skateboards weren’t the best form of transportation around my ’burb, but they were the most fun. Even at a young age, I had enough leg strength and coordination to mimic some of the things I saw in skate videos and that kept me hooked. Dirts would ride BMX bikes into the woods to smoke bad weed—I was scouring construction sites for plywood and 2-by-4s to make some ramp that I’d eventually sprain something on. Those ramps never worked too well but they shot me out of the suburbs eventually.

When I see a guy in khakis rolling to work on a longboard, I think about those makeshift ramps and want to throw a rock at his wheels and yell, ‘Poser!’… just for a second.” PHOTO BY CASEY CHAOS

his own history, most kids who grew up in suburbia with vaguely similar interests can probably relate to any number of the passages: drinking stolen beer in the woods, hopelessly lusting after punk rock chicks too cool for him, facing down bullies, discovering music, attending shows.

Viewed as a whole, the stories encapsulate a moment in history. Much as Harmony Korine and Larry Clark’s Kids aimed to do for urban teenagers growing up in Downtown Manhattan, Pappalardo’s stories could almost be used as a history textbook, albeit a very graphic one.

“It’s that suburban thing; everyone can relate to it,” he said. The book serves as an ode, an homage of sorts, to this upbringing.

A lot of Pappalardo’s inner musings capture the typical longing in the suburbs to escape to somewhere “cool” and the later-in-life realization that growing up in the suburbs might have been pretty rad in itself. “These stories were chosen specifically because it was like, where are you going and, once you get there, what are you doing with those opportunities?” he said.

A big part of that is the epic quest for “cool” and the sense of trying to belong, whether by the bands you listen to or the clothes you wear or the skateboard you ride.

“It’s about longing for a bridge from where you are,” Pappalardo said. “I grew up a dreamer.”

This wasn’t 2011. Skateboarding and alternative types of music were not popular, nor were they something many people in his hometown supported. The blend of cultures that exists in today’s post-mash-up world was nonexistent. “I gravitated toward the people who were into those things, those who knew there was more out there and wanted a community of like-minded people,” he added.

These communities of likeminded people were essentially tribes, Pappalardo explained. You showed your allegiance to a certain tribe by which brand of sneaker you wore or which record or cassette you showed off. Back then, it was a big deal if you chose to wear Airwalk or Fred Perry.

“What you’re trying to establish is, ‘I’m a part of this tribe.’ The tribal identity was so important prior to the commoditization of subculture. You were saying, ‘I’m this person,’” said Pappalardo.

All of these tribes apparently had one goal, and that was to end up in the East Village, where they would be heavily represented and everything they searched high and low for would be readily available. The street skating scene was taking off with brands like Zoo York. Kim’s video store led the way for a score of other used

record stores. CBGB was fostering hardcore music and the Alleged Gallery was bringing skateboard art to the public on a previously unheard of level—not to mention the rotating cast of dive bars and clubs that had their 15 minutes. It was the focal point.

Pappalardo started taking the bus down to New York City in college. “We never went anywhere but the East Village. There were a million record stores, there was 99X, which was the only place you could buy Ben Sherman and Fred Perry stuff,” he said, referencing two iconic British brands that were popular with a segment of the skateboarding, hardcore-listening population. “It was all folklore to me.”

Pappalardo finally moved to New York City in 2002, but could only afford to live in an illegal apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He worked for street teams putting up stickers and wrote for skateboarding magazines.

As for the East Village, it was the holy grail. “Anything you fantasized about was there. You had the best clothing stores, the best record stores, the best music venues where the best bands played,” said Pappalardo, mentioning the likes of CBGB and Supreme, icons of punk and skateboarding culture.

But this is where he takes a slight turn and starts to describe why he finds the suburbs more compelling: “Whatever happens in New York City, you need kids in suburbia to be into it.”

And for Pappalardo as well as for many other teenagers for generations, the East Village has been a place where the people in these subcultures gather to find like-minded individuals. “We never appreciated what we had—we were always looking forward to getting to the East Village,” he said.

Pappalardo also recently finished writing his first story. “It’s called ‘Granite Pace’; it’s a really simple, John Hughesy story about a skate punk, hardcore kid and his bond with a popular chick with a dark secret or something like that,” he said.

He’s also returned to music and has an album coming out on DAIS records (who also produce the bands Cold Cave, Psychic TV and Iceage) with artwork by Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices. His solo project is titled Italian Horn and is a bit of a diversion from his previous work in the hardcore scene.

Pappalardo is also already working on a new book and is promoting Live…Suburbia! all over the United States.

As for the current incarnation of the East Village, he’s uncharacteristically reticent about how he feels about it. He doesn’t seem that upset about gentrification, and

Left: “Guitars and superheroes were powerful and mysterious to me. I would daydream about an insect biting me and waking up with the ability to solo like Eddie Van Halen and destroy any bully with my radioactive powers. KISS once represented this fantasy, long before I realized they were horny hacks with a flair for marketing.” PHOTO FROM LIVE...SUBURBIA! COURTESY OF POWERHOUSE BOOKS Below: “Thrash

metal was a bridge into punk and hardcore for me and was essential. There were fewer songs about dragons and more about corrupt politicians, corrupt priests and corrupt parents. It was a fun ride until Anthrax started making rap songs and wearing Jam’z shorts.”

‘Whatever happens in New York City, you need kids in suburbia to be into it.’

PHOTO BY HARALD OIMEON

comments that he doesn’t mind not getting robbed there anymore. Whether the neighborhood still has the same pull for misfits across the world, he’s not sure.

“I’m so far removed from youth culture that I don’t really know whether there are still 14-year-old kids in the middle of nowhere longing to come here, but the identity of the East Village is still very important,” he said. “And I know that people my age are making a living by commodifying it.”

Still, it’s hard not too imagine he’s a little dissatisfied with everything. In the book’s last vignette, after witnessing a baby in a

Motörhead T-shirt, he writes: “As I continued to scan walls, magazines and humans, I noticed that every novelty from my childhood was now a movie and a sequel. All bands, dead or alive, were back together and playing festivals where they charged you for water.

I was in New York City, but I suspected this phenomenon was spreading through America and maybe all of Earth…All the humans I wanted to meet as a suburban teenage boy in the late 1980s had become franchises in my hometown mall. The convenience was great but still confusing.”

NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | OTDOWNTOWN.COM

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� SE E Where Art & Bed Bugs Roost Hunter Fine creates cautionary street art installations for LES and EV apartment seekers | By BEtH mELLow

tively to the masses.

“Having a background in creative adhen his buddy’s apartvertising makes you poke holes in all ideas. ment was infested by bed It teaches you to never go with your first bugs, Hunter Fine didn’t thought, or do something that’s been done recoil in horror or offer to before. Coming up with installations uses call an exterminator. He the same ethos in the thinking process— reacted in the only way that befits a creative spend time making the idea great and maktype: He created art. ing sure your message is clear,” he noted.

“One of my friends in the East Village Bed Bug Hotels is not the first art project got the bugs and had to get rid of all his Fine has taken to the Downtown streets. stuff. I was telling him that there should Last spring, with fellow advertising industry be a way to warn people from moving into veteran Jeff Greenspan, Fine created the buildings with bed bugs. And then the idea popular Urban Traps. The project focused sort of matriculated,” said Fine. on two subcultures in New York City: “hipBed Bug Hotels, Fine’s latest street sters” and “bridge and tunnel” folk. art project, is both a physical and online For each group, Fine and Greenspan laid exhibit. Fine began working on the project out large metal traps containing five items this summer, constructing colorful miniato lure their respective prey. Of course, the ture buildings only inches high with kitschy hipster-focused piece included Pabst Blue names like “Bed Bug & Breakfast.” Last Ribbon and bike chains, while the bridge month, he started placing the tiny hotels and tunnel work was comprised of selfin insect-infested buildings in the Lower tanner and PATH tickets. These traps were East Side and East set up throughout Village where the Lower Manhattan pests have been and Brooklyn. A reported. A correD.C. installation sponding web site, about Tea Partiers BedBugHotels.org, featured gun and tumblr featurcleaner and Dick ing these works Armey’s manifeswere launched sito Give Us Liberty. multaneously in an The works, higheffort to encourage lighting the stepeople to construct reotypes of these their own pieces, cultural subHunter Fine’s street art project from 2010 ,“Urban Traps.” groups, seemed take photos and This one was tailored for the hipsters of the Lower East to resonate, and share Fine’s project Side and Brooklyn. PHOTO COURTESY OF HUNTER FiNE via Twitter, Faceimages of Fine’s book and Google+. pieces appeared on several high-traffic “It’s pretty cool how you can put someblogs, including Gothamist and Gawker. thing up in the urban atmosphere and While Fine, a 32-year-old Lower East someone will take a picture or find the picSide resident, currently considers the street tures you post online and pass it around on his primary canvas, he dabbles in other art social media networks to all their friends,” and creative mediums as well. “I tend to try said Fine. to do everything at once. I was really into The installation of the Bed Bug Hotels stop-motion animation for a while and still was just as scrappy and grassroots as the continue to work as a freelance animation methods Fine uses to spread the word director whenever needed. I’m working on about his project. Fine enlisted his friends two graphic novels right now. I also have a to help out by taking photos or acting as few projects in various stages of development cover while he set the Bed Bug Hotels up at with several friends that involve disrupting each site. “I try to stay within legalities and the community in the same way the Bed Bug wouldn’t do anything that would warrant Hotels and Urban Traps did,” Fine explained. an arrest. It’s sort of passive aggressive that Although he cites a variety of influences way,” Fine added. for Bed Bug Hotels and his vast body of Creating projects with viral potenwork, Fine believes that living on the Lower tial—especially ones that are buzz-worthy East Side has shaped his art to a certain —comes naturally to Fine. Working a day extent: “I feel like most people tend to do job as an associate creative director at the projects about what they know. Most writadvertising agency BBDO New York, he has ers write about where they live, and I feel learned the subtle art of messaging effecit’s the same for me.”

W

 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

As part of his “Bed Bug Hotel” installation, Fine attaches his whimsical insect abodes on the sides of bug- infested apartment buildings in the East Village and the Lower East Side.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HUNTER FiNE

� SE E

Tired of Rushing to the Ladies Room?

An iLife Examined |

By marissa maier

M

ike Daisey, called a “master storyteller” by the New York Times, has developed a special blend of personal history and gonzo journalism in his hilarious and touching monologues. This time around, Daisey narrows his laser-sharp wit on the empire of Apple in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, playing through Dec. 4 at The Public Theater at Astor Place.

Starting out as a techie and devoted worshipper of all things Jobs, a chance sighting of photos of an iPhone assembly line compelled Daisey to voyage to Shenzhen, the Chinese city where many Apple products are made. What he found on the expedition was shocking: factories that hold 430,000 people, 13-year-olds working over 12-hour shifts and twenty-something workers crippled by the chemicals used to clean iPhone screens. Daisey, once a worshipper at the altar of the upgrade, found himself forever changed by his most recent shows.

Is this piece a departure from your previous work, in terms of focusing on broader cultural and social issues?

A number of them have been in this vein, like If You See Something Say Something. It is a form of what you might call journalism—I research these broader issues and canvass people. Not every monologue is this kind of monologue, but I have been tending to do this for a while now.

Why do you think your work is going in this direction?

I think in large part I am interested in stories that I feel our culture is telling.

The Steve Jobs biography just came out— it is about 700 pages long. It is a comprehensive view of him, but through one lens. If we put on a different lens, Jobs’ story is fundamentally one about a man who made things.

In the book there is not even one paragraph about how these things were made. Those are the stories that bind us together, but it is hard to see them and what they are.

Throughout the piece you mention “seeing” and how we are often blind to the things in front of us. I noticed that as the show ended, people whipped out their i-devices, but I bet everyone felt differently about them after seeing your piece.

Monologist Mike Daisey turns his eye to his beloved Apple and its creator, in the The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, extended through Dec. 4 at The Public Theater.

PhOtO cOuRtEsy Of thE PuBlic thEatER

Thanks to the specialists at the Center for Pelvic Health for Women at New York Downtown Hospital, women of all ages can be free from the embarrassment of a frequent need to urinate as well as urine leaking while they’re exercising, laughing, coughing or sneezing.

That is the idea of the metaphor shift.

Everything is back the same as it was a moment before, but now we see things in a new way and it changes our world. It changes the dialog.

Something that resonated is how Apple is helping to continue this First/Third World socioeconomic dynamic, which seems like a similar narrative to the Industrial Revolution. Looking at his work through this lens, would you say Steve Jobs was truly as revolutionary as some might say, if this narrative seems to be repeating itself?

This echoes something I wrote about in a New York Times op-ed column. I think if we are going to export these jobs [to other countries], we have an ethical responsibility to uphold fair labor practices. Steve Jobs choosing not to do this was actually the conservative thing to do.

Shenzhen invokes all of the images of the Industrial Revolution, but we didn’t need it to work this way. To say that this is simply the way a global economy works is an inherently false worldview. These changes are very recent. Shenzhen has really only existed for the last 30 years, and the factory was made only in the last decade or so.

The whole reason the systems works the way it does now is to avoid U.S. labor laws.

Change is not only possible, it is inevitable.

It is interesting that the sense of apathy is changing even now. I see it doing this monologue…and through Occupy Wall Street.

There is a paradigm shift. People are remembering that it is possible to protest something.

What can people do to more ethically interact with Apple products?

One can educate oneself. There is a lot of information that is available about how this world works and Chinese labor laws. A large part of our responsibility is thinking about our upgrade cycle. I, for instance, haven’t upgraded anything since I went to Shenzhen.

Did you feel a quick pang of lust when the iPhone 4S was announced?

It was like a pang, but I am doing OK. It was far from torture.

Dr. Giti Bensinger, a Urogynecologist, leads the Center for Pelvic Health for Women.

She and her team at New York Downtown Hospital offer a wide range of treatments from simple exercises to medications to noninvasive surgery.

Call (212) 238-0180 to learn how they can help you, or to make an appointment with Dr. Bensinger today.

Giti Bensinger MD, FACOG Director of Urogynecology THE WOMENS’ HEALTH CENTER a component of the WELLNESS & PREVENTION CENTER

170 William Street, New York, NY 10038 Telephone: (212) 312-5000 www.downtownwellness.org NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | otdowntown.com



� SEE Director Werner Herzog Visits Death Row | By cullen gallagher

D

eath is not unfamiliar territory for filmmaker Werner Herzog.

He has explored the topic— and felt its very real threat—in several movies. In La Soufrière (1977), Herzog risked his own life (and his crew’s) to investigate a volcano on the verge of erupting; on-location shooting for the fictional film Fitzcaraldo (1982) posed lifethreatening challenges (such as lugging a steamship over a mountain); and in Grizzly Man (2005), the director repurposed video footage shot by Timothy Treadwell, whose nature retreat ended with a bear attack, killing both Treadwell and his girlfriend. But nowhere in his career has Herzog dealt with

Michael Perry, subject of Into the Abyss. PHOTO cOuRTEsy Of WERNER HERzOg filMPROdukTiON

death as honestly and frankly as in his latest documentary, Into the Abyss.

At times deeply sympathetic and at others chillingly sober, Into the Abyss investigates the moral complexities surrounding a real-life murder case and the subsequent execution of a man partly responsible for a heinous crime.

On Oct. 24, 2001, nurse Sandra Stot-

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ler, 50, was murdered in her home near Conroe, Texas. Two young men, 18-yearolds Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, were convicted of the crime. Burkett received life in prison, while Perry was handed a death sentence. Eight days before his scheduled execution, Herzog interviewed Perry, and the inevitability of Perry’s death casts a chilling, grave shadow over the conversation.

Herzog’s camera rolls on, subtracting seconds from the finite supply remaining of Perry’s life. The director’s relationship to the convicted murderer is perplexing, and through their talks one gets the impression that Herzog’s own moral worldview is being challenged.

Herzog states at the beginning of the film that he does not support the state’s right to execute anyone, yet he’s not advocating for Perry’s innocence. His interest in the case is not melodramatic, nor does he seem to want to create an exposé or enact real world change. Perry’s guilt isn’t questioned, and Herzog discusses the youth’s crime with the same sensitive objectivity he gives to Stotler’s daughter during their interview. One senses a profound sense of pity from the director, a lament for a senseless loss of life that, in the end, will only cost more lives.

Stotler’s daughter, after enduring the loss of so many family members to crime, disease or accident over the past few years, has given up answering the phone, afraid of what more bad news there may be.

Despite the solemn overtones, Into the Abyss is not without its moments of hope.

The marriage between Burkett and Melyssa Thompson, who only met because she was hired to work on his court appeals, lends the film moments of lighthearted bemusement.

Viewers familiar with Herzog’s documentaries will notice the conspicuous absence of his characteristic voice-over.

Herzog’s narration is typically filled with philosophical flights of fancy and bits of wry humor, but there is no such creative treatment—or manipulation—of reality in Into the Abyss. Herzog seems humbled by the graveness of his subject, and the resulting film is one of the most affecting and unique—not to mention human—works of Herzog’s career.

� DI N I N G Soho to Get a Bite of Midtown Turkish Delight Popular eastern Mediterranean restaurant to open branch in November

| By MegaN McgiBNey It is said the world’s three greatest cuisines are French, Chinese and Turkish.

While Downtown has plenty of the first two, it could use more of the latter.

Luckily, Soho is set to get a Turkish eatery of its very own Nov. 15, when the Midtown hotspot Pera Mediterranean Brasserie opens its Downtown version: Pera SoHo. The award-winning restaurant known for its elegant décor and softly lit dining rooms intends to provide this fashion-centric district with some of Turkey’s finest cultural dishes.

“I think it’s proven to be a great concept,” said owner Burak Karacam of his eateries. “Whether it’s the décor or the music that’s soft to people’s ears, it’s a very refreshing take on eastern Mediterranean and Turkish cuisine.”

Karacam hails from the country’s capitol, and the restaurants derive their name from one of Istanbul’s more eclectic neighborhoods. Since the 17th century, the place has been home to many non-

lack of neighboring tall buildings and the Islamic cultures, including Italian, Greek, Turkish/American duo of Metin Calisir and chance to be on the cutting edge of dining Nathan Crouser.

Jewish, Armenian and French. It was in habits.

Pera that these groups resided and set up As for the possibility of more Peras, “I think Soho is making a comeback in their businesses, and it is at Karacam’s Karacam said, “It’s not something we are terms of dining,” he said. restaurants that a blend of eastern Mediagainst, but currently the focus is on getWhen it comes to making Pera SoHo terranean cuisine comes to life. ting this one up and running and reachdifferent from its Midtown relative, KaraPera’s menu mainly consists of Mediing its potential.” After that, Karacam cam is contemplating whether to make a terranean staples like olive oil, zucchini, will look around for a new place for New quarter or a third of its menu different. The eggplant, beans, seafood and lamb.

Yorkers to experience one of the world’s Downtown kitchen will be headed by the Dessert fans may mourn the lack of cake, greatest cuisines. but will rejoice at Pera’s selection of puddings and baklava.

Pera SoHo,designed

by DYAMI architects with décor overseen by Karacam himself, will include a lounge area up front with a doorway leading to a garden, which will be open to patrons beginning in April. In addition, during the warmer months, private parties can go to the rooftop and watch the sun set before going downstairs to sup in a dining room that can seat 105. Karacam chose 54 Thompson Pl. for Istanbul native Burak Karacam in front of his yet to be opened Pera SoHo. phOTO BY MegaN McgiBNey. Pera’s Downtown Pera SoHo because of the location will be similar to its uptown haunt, located on Madison Avenue. phOTO cOuRTsEY Of pERa MEdiTERRaNEaN BRassERiE

penniless epicure

Barolo Produces Some of the Best Wines in the World

F

or the most part, I try very hard to stay true to the “Penniless” part of my moniker. There are times, however, when opportunity presents itself and wines appear that are so amazing they must be reviewed and shared with the public, no matter the expense.

That is the case with Barolo.

Made exclusively from the nebbiolo grape, Barolo is from the Piemonte region of northwestern Italy. Like many other old world wines, Barolo’s name comes from its place of origin—in this case, a village in Piemonte near Alba. There are actually over half a dozen townships and subregions within Barolo itself that pinpoint exactly where each wine is from, sometimes down to the kilometer.

Why so much fuss over a bottle of wine?

A lot of it has to do with tradition. The wines from Barolo have been made in the same way, producing the same intense, garnet-hued red wine, since the mid-19th century. The townships that have perfected this style of wine wear it as a badge of pride—not only that their hills and countrysides are the best in the world for growing this grape (which, arguably, they are) but that their techniques for handling this specific grape are well-honed.

of wildflowers up front leads to a bracingly Barolo is traditionally a wine meant to tannic middle, with sour black cherry on the age considerably before drinking, but more finish. This is bang for your buck Barolo! and more producers are attempting to make One of the great, venerable producers of wines that can be available without shoving Barolo that comes through year after year a bottle away for 10 to 15 years. Some look at is Vietti, and their Vietti Barolo Castiglione this as forward-thinking; others as heresy. The 2007 ($49.95 at Sherry-Lehmann, 505 Park results are, as with all wines, mixed.

Ave. at 60th St., 212-838-7500) is no exception.

I have been lucky enough to try many If this wine were a piece of furniture, it would Barolos over the last several months. Most be your favorite old were great but there leather recliner—the were a handful that Barolo is traditionally a wine that one everyone fights were truly spectacuis meant to age considerably before to sit in. The nose lar—worth the extra drinking, but more and more is rife with familiar splurge. smells from an There are as producers are attempting to make English study: cedar, many styles of wines that are available without old leather and aged Barolo as there are shoving a bottle away for ten to hardwood. The subregions that fifteen years. Some look at it as forpalate unleashes make the wine itself. ward thinking and others as heresy. a tannin monster.

One of my favorites Beware: While I recis the more floral style ommend decanting all Barolos, I might even of Barolo. The Serralunga Barolo d’Alba double decant this one. Once the wine has 2007 ($29.99 at Beacon Wines and Spirits, been given a little time to relax and open up, 2120 Broadway at 74th St., 212-877-0028) is a there is layer upon layer of complexity—bitter terrific and affordable example of this style. chocolates, underripe berries and wisps of Rosewood and fresh-cut violets burst out of pipe smoke, to name a few. the glass and into the nose, and the palate On the subtler, lighter side of Barolo has even more to offer. A pungent bouquet

there’s the G.D.Vajra Barolo Albe 2006 ($27.99 at Union Square Wines, 140 4th Ave. at 13th St., 212-675-8100).

Scents of mild earth and shaved white josh perilo truffle waft from the glass. Whispers of baked cherry lead to a middle with chalky tannins and an earthy, tightly wound finish. While this one is drinking well now, it’s a great example of a wine that will continue to improve over the next decade.

Then there is the Elio Grasso Barolo Rüncot 2004 ($130.69 at Morrell & Company, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, 212-688-9370). To quote Peter Boyle’s Frank Barone, holy crap. The nose is intense and sweet, with cedar, pine, and other sweet wood scents. The palate starts with flavor notes of caramelized sugar which morph into molasses then lead to baked fig.

The tannins balance the fruit flavors with a pleasant, espresso-like bitterness. The finish is stoic. Elio Grasso has long been one of my favorite producers from this region and they have outdone themselves with this offering.

An absolute masterpiece.

NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | otdowntown.com



BEST PICK

Tomboy

THURSDAY

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

[11/16]

Film Forum, 209 W Houston St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), www.filmforum.org; $12.50.

No, not Tommy Boy starring Chris Farley. Tomboy, a delicate tale of pre-adolescence, tells the story of a French family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, who move to a new neighborhood during the summer holidays. With her Jean Seberg haircut and boyish ways, Laure passes herself off as a “he.”

❮

FRIDAY

Apexart, 291 Church St. (betw. White & Walker Sts.), www.apexart.org; 6:30–8 p.m.

Feeling a little walled in at work? Dream of taking a hammer to your cubicle dividers? Then this exhibition is for you. Over 20 artists from various backgrounds will present their interpretations of The Walls that Divide Us. Topics include the ideology of wall building and zones of conflict, immigration and politics, revolution and the “Arab Spring.”

Comanchero Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan St. (betw. W. 3rd & Bleecker Sts.), www.sullivanhallnyc.com; 7 p.m., $10, 18+.

Cactus rock? Sounds painful, but it seems that their boot-stomping twang has been rubbing audiences the right way. According to The Noise, “Comanchero takes the stage and tears it up like old pros.” Think The Allman Brothers mixed with Widespread Panic and a dash of Led Zeppelin. Yeehaw!

SUNDAY

FREE First Annual NY Poetry Pub Crawl

FREE Forum on the U.S. Economy

Greenwich House, 27 Barrow St., 5th Fl. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), www.greenwichhouse.org; 8 p.m.

Occupy Wall Street is going strong—if only we could say the same for the U.S. economy. This panel, set to address the U.S. market, will educate and inform about one of the most important current events of our time. Congressman Jerrold Nadler and author Jeff Madrick will speak as well.

❯

Drinking & Driving in Ürümqi Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd St. (betw.

Aves. B & C), www.nuyorican.org; 7 p.m., $8.

Often find yourself wondering what life is like in Ürümqi, China? Even if you don’t, this reading/ performance will capture your interest. Writer/ traveler/performer Andrew Demetre’s narrative performance shares the first-hand experiences he had traveling in the riot-scarred city.

Facebook Me! DR2 Theater, 103 E. 15th St. (betw. 15th & 16th Sts.), www.dr2theatre.com; 5 p.m., $30.

It was only a matter of time before social networks hit the stage. The play is a shockingly real look into the lives of 10 teen girls as they attempt to navigate the excitement and embarrassment, shame and success of their adolescence online...where status is so much more than an update.

James Franco & Laurel Nakadate Séance Abron Arts Center, 466 Grand St. (betw. Columbia & Pitt Sts.), 11.performa-arts.org; Noon-2 p.m., $30.

Laurel Nakadate and James Franco will create a three-part project based around Tennessee Williams’ famous play The Glass Menagerie (1944). In Part 1, Nakadate and Franco will lead a séance with an invited group of special guests to communicate with the Southern-bred playwright through a Ouija board and receive instructions from the author’s spirit.

Meet at Washington Sq. Park’s Giuseppe Garibaldi Monument; 8 p.m.

Nothing goes together like good literature and drinking. Whether you are just a dabbler in either or a big fan of both, enjoy a few poems and a few beers with fellow lit-oholics as you walk, stumble or crawl around downtown.

MONDAY

❮

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Submissions can be sent to otdowntown@manhattanmedia.com.

Michael Ian Black Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.), www.boweryballroom.com; 8 p.m., $20.

If you haven’t seen Wet Hot American Summer, put down this paper right now, go to your nearest Redbox or visit Netflix and watch it immediately! Then buy your ticket to Black’s stand-up show. With his patented sardonic delivery, Black is a sure comedy bet.

FREE The Walls that Divide Us

SATURDAY

Visit otdowntown.com for the latest updates on local events.

❯

THE 7-DAY PLAN

FREE Rethinking the Glimmer Twins

The Adam Wade from NH Show Under St. Mark’s, 94 St. Mark’s Pl. (betw.

1st Ave. & Ave. A), www.adamwade.com; 7 p.m., $5.

Moth winner Wade revisits the stories of his adolescence supplemented with home movies, videos and musical sets. A guest storyteller opens the show every evening with their own 15-minute tale.

Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby St. (betw.

Houston & Prince Sts.), www.housingworksbookstore.com; 7 p.m.

Keith Richards is the soul of the Stones. Mick is the brain. For years, this has been accepted as a rock ‘n’ roll gospel and never really challenged. But just how accurate is it? A panel of Rolling Stones experts delve into the myth of one of the world’s greatest bands.

FREE Matt Stone & Matthew Stone

The Hole, 312 Bowery (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), www.theholenyc.com; 12–7 p.m.

No, you aren’t seeing double. Two artists, two exhibitions, one name. Matthew Stone will show his Optimism as Cultural Rebellion photographs and sculptures. Matt Stone will showcase Residuum, which features formal geometries explored with flamboyant materials. Head to The Hole and decide which Stone tickles your fancy.

Nathanial Mellors: Ourhouse Westway, 75 Clarkson St. (betw. West & Washington Sts.), 11.performa-arts.org; 8 p.m., $10.

Employing the aesthetic and format of British television comedydramas, Nathaniel Mellors’ surreal six-part video series Ourhouse uses sculpture to examine power dynamics in an upper-class house.

A character named “The Object” invades the house of a wealthy British family and begins to control the language used in the home.

This six-part video series, part of Performa 11, is a wonderfully artistic mixed bag.

 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

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Silence! The Musical P.S. 122, 150 1st Ave. (betw. 9th & 10th Sts.), www.ps122.org; 8 p.m. $25 & $79.

Have you ever watched Silence of the Lambs and found yourself asking, “What is missing here?” Obviously some snappy musical numbers! Search no longer: Silence! The Musical is a hilarious parody based on the Academy Award-winning film.

The Eyes of Ayn Rand St. Patrick’s Youth Center, 270 Mulberry St. (betw. W. Houston & Prince Sts.), 11.performa-arts.org; 7 p.m., $15.

Inspired by the home Russian architect and painter Konstanin Melnikov created for himself in Moscow in the 1920s and footage of Miss Rand’s eyes scanning a television studio in 1958, Berlin-based artist Dennis McNulty has created a performance, mixing sound, space, gesture and language. Part of Performa 11.

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N OV E M B E R 10, 2011 | otd ow n tow n . c o m

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� FAM I LY Expert advice on finding the right camp for your child | By Charlotte eiChna 1. Involve Your ChIld—to a degree “Obviously, you maybe don’t let the child pick the exact camp, because they may pick it from the pretty picture in the brochure and not based on safety or some other issue,” said Jon Malinowski, Ph.D., camping author and expert. “But the worst thing a parent can do is to just choose a camp, decide that the child is going to camp and not involve the child in the process at all. It’s a recipe for a very unhappy, very homesick child.”

Christopher Thurber, Ph.D., camping author, said that even with children as young as five, parents can do research ahead of time then present a few options, any of which they’d be happy to follow through with. “You can make it collaborative at any age,” he says. “Just kind of tailor it to what is developmentally appropriate.”

Alternatively, consider bringing your child along when you shop for camping supplies, even for things as simple as a new toothbrush or pair of sneakers.

2. aCCredItatIon Many camp experts believe that ac-

creditation is the first thing a parent should look for when evaluating camps. Unfortunately, this is not as cut-and-dried an issue as parents might wish. Just because a camp is accredited doesn’t mean it’s good, while a camp that lacks accreditation isn’t necessarily bad. And finding an accredited camp certainly doesn’t let a parent off the hook when it comes to doing additional research.

Accreditation is typically given by the American Camp Association (ACA). Two highly trained standards visitors, one of whom is often a camp director, tour the site for about a day, poking through cabins, prowling in the mess hall and scoping out the waterfront to make sure the camp meets the association’s approximately 300 safety and health standards. There’s also a thorough review of paperwork beforehand. (You can read more about the process at acacamps.org/accreditation.)

And don’t immediately dismiss camps that aren’t accredited, either, according to Malinowski.

“I know of some established camps that have been in business for a long time,” he said. “They do their own thing and don’t feel a need to be involved with the ACA.” It’s not uncommon for YMCA, Jewish and Christian

fundamentalist camps to pass on accreditation, he explained. The bottom line, though, is that if a camp isn’t accredited, parents should ask why.

3. are PeoPle StICkIng around?

Accredited or not, parents should try to find out if people are coming back. That goes for the director, staff and campers.

A camp that attracts directors who stay for a long time is probably stable, has a consistent vision and is generally a fun place to be. But don’t just ask how long the current director has been around, says Thurber—the current director might be a relative newcomer. Instead, ask what the average tenure for directors has been in the life of the camp.

Also ask about return rates. No camp will have all at its staff or campers return the following year, since many become too old for the program. But a 70 to 80 percent return rate is “fabulous,” according to Thurber.

If between 50 and 70 percent of campers and staff return, that’s “very good.” But if less than half of eligible campers and staff are choosing to return, it could indicate problems with the camp’s quality.

A caveat: Specialty programs may have lower return rates by nature.

4. Meet and greet We know you’re busy, but once you’ve narrowed down a short list, be sure to visit camps or at the very least meet the director.

Many camps offer rookie days or weekends for prospective campers, according to Joanne Paltrowitz, founder of the advisory service Camp Experts. A visit also lets a parent see firsthand that the waterfront is safe (can you easily identify who’s in charge?), the grounds are well kept (is there broken glass underfoot or tools laying around?) and the bunks meet fire codes (are there fire alarms and fire extinguishers?).

5. Be honeSt aBout Your ChIld Your kid is obviously better than everyone else’s. But try, when you’re chatting with the director, to give the full picture.

“Tell [directors] not who you want your child to be, but who your child really is,” said Flax.

Believe it or not, a director will tell you if your child won’t fit in, Flax says.

An honest assessment of your child’s personality will also help the director decide on counselors and bunk placement.

Honesty means being frank about your child’s interests and talents as well.

Nov. 12-13, Randall’s Island, New York City

worldcupquidditch.com, Tickets for kids: $5

 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

It’s Not Too Early To Think About Summer Camp For 2012!

New York F amily magazine and the American Camp Association, NY and NJ are teaming up for two Camp Fairs in November!

• Meet over 30 different camp directors • Local Day Camps • Sleepaway Camps • Great for children ages 3-17

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Healthy Manhattan a monthly advertising supplement

Caring for AIDS Patients as They Age

that impact older patients. Seniors in their fifties with HIV/AIDS often have the health conditions of someone 15 to 20 years older.

More than 75 percent of older people with AIDS or HIV suffer from at least two other disorders unrelated to their disease (though some AIDS medications can make other disorders easier to get), most commonly

By Dan Rosenblum depression, arthritis and hepatitis.

Caregivers in NewYork City are a When many people think of AIDS or mix of professional organizations like the HIV, they often picture a younger person, Visiting Nurse Service and senior housing perhaps in their twenties or thirties. But with employees, as well as informal networks of improving medical technology and treatments that help patients live for much longer, families and friends who help elderly citizens.

Some nursing homes and senior centers those perceptions are becoming outdated. like the Robert Mapplethorpe Facility and Often termed the “graying of AIDS,” St. Mary’s Episcopal Center in Manhattan people 50 and older are making up a larger exclusively treat HIV/AIDS seniors. share of the HIV/AIDS population across Tietz said caregivers shouldn’t have to America. In fact, recent statistics show the worry much about transmission as long seniors’ portion of the population grew as they follow general safety precautions, from 22 percent in 2001 to 35 percent in such as following universal guidelines for 2007. And the NewYork State Department cleanliness and hygiene. of Health projects the number of sufferers “They’re not universal for nothing,” over 65 in the state will grow from 5,000 to Tietz said.

30,000 by 2025.

In fact, for caregivers, dealing with Dan Tietz, executive director of the chronic AIDS and HIV Manhattan-based AIDS Community Research ‘People don’t want ia in the same category as handing chronic heart Initiative of America, problems, diabetes and said that before recently, to think about many patients didn’t live grandma’s sex life… other chronic conditions.

Specialists encourage long enough to have a awareness as the biggest noticeable impact among but it’s something tool in their arsenal. They senior care providers. that exists.’ recommend that seniors “But that has get tested if they think changed. Now HIV is, they have the disease. Tietz said a recent in many respects, a manageable chronic test showed much higher incidents of older condition,” he said. people carrying both AIDS and HIV. Because of this, caregivers for senior “That means that older adults had citizens are seeing a slew of new patients HIV at some length that went on undewith HIV/AIDS. These demographic tected,” said Tietz. “And if they’ve not changes have happened so quickly that been tested before, they’re not getting caregiver practices haven’t necessarily care before. That should concern us.” caught up to the general population. But This is true for caregivers and the new there are some efforts to educate those generation, too. Markosky said it’s imporcaregivers. tant to get beyond ageism and stigma to Karol Markosky, who directs the recognize that many seniors are sexually AIDS program at the Council of Senior active and some are drug users.

Centers and Services, said that better “People don’t want to think about practices for dealing with older patients grandma’s sex life,” said Markosky. “And haven’t yet been clearly developed, but I get it. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s somethey’ve heard a lot of good input from thing that exists.” their training programs.

She said her friends sometimes get She said that any professional or uptight when she talks about her work family caregiver should know how to deal and the realities facing seniors, but with the mental challenges, like depresMarkosky said the disease needed to be sion, social anxiety or isolation. discussed in the open.

“Of course, they’re still facing the chal“I always say, ‘Don’t you hope that lenges of the HIV diagnosis and the chalwhen you’re 60, 70, 80, you’re still living lenges that go with that, but they’re also really your life—however you want to define seeing that a lot of their new challenges are that?’” she said. “So why can’t we do that just dealing with aging in general,” she said. for people right now?”

There are, of course, health conditions

HIV Work Tied to Caregiver Coalitions In 2006, the Research on Older Adults with HIV study by the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America looked at the increasing number of senior citizens with HIV/AIDS. When groups around New York got a look at these numbers, many knew it was time for a wake-up call.

“That study really was the groundbreaking first study looking at older adults with HIV,” said Karol Markosky of the Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS).

Soon after the study’s release, the CSCS launched a campaign to unite those who were concerned about people aging with the disease.

Pushed by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Bronx Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo, the city provided funding to get out the word.

The CSCS, which was launched in 1979 and serves a network of 300 senior centers, is tied to a wide variety of causes and organizations that reach out to senior citizens in New York City. Most recently, they’ve protested budget cuts to senior centers and a growing hunger problem among the city’s elderly.

One of the council’s major efforts was to help create the New York City Family Caregiver Coali-

tion, dedicated to being an information resource for family members who are caring for loved ones and for the organizations helping them. The coalition was founded in 2004 and currently has about 250 members, including Manhattan Media, publisher of Our Town, West Side Spirit and Our Town Downtown.

Allison Nickerson, program coordinator for the Family Caregiver Coalition, said her group is now working closely with groups like Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders to provide more support to people with HIV or AIDS and their loved ones taking care of them.

The AIDS Community Research Initiative is still doing much of the work in New York to educate senior citizens, caregivers and doctors. This month, the state awarded the group a $75,000 annual contract to provide education across the state.

Together, much of their work combines web resources with in-person classes on AIDS competency and awareness. And after three decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many specialists are hopeful seniors can live healthier lives.

—Dan Rosenblum

NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | otdowntown.com

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Healthy Manhattan

Diabetic Top Chef is Living ‘The Sweet Life’

T

By Lisa ELainE HELd he walls of Sam Talbot’s Lower East Side apartment, which he painted himself, are bright blue and deep purple. He also painted the abstract art that hangs on them, and mismatched potted plants practically overtake his dining room table.

Talbot has two rescue dogs who “run all over everything,” and his favorite pastimes are yoga and surfing.

As a semifinalist on Top Chef, Talbot was voted “Fan Favorite” before being booted off. Winning the judges’ approval would have been way too inside-the-lines for him.

He also has type 1, insulin-dependent diabetes.

Talbot, the executive chef of sustainable seafood spots Imperial #9 in Soho and Surf Lodge in Montauk, has just released his first cookbook. The book, like the chef, is unconventional and colorful.

The Sweet Life: Diabetes Without Boundaries is full of recipes, but it’s also an expression of the world according to Sam Talbot—vivid, flavorful and limitless—all with a low glycemic index.

“I talk about my daily dance—the exercise routine, the surfing, the yoga, the play stuff, the traveling, the aromatherapy,” said Talbot. “It’s a cookbook with a little bit of kickback.”

Traditional cookbooks for individuals living with diabetes, like Betty Crocker’s Diabetes Cookbook, have tended to focus on calculations. The Betty Crocker recipes were created with the help of a medical center, and they all list the number of “Carbohydrate Choices” per recipe, a measurement some diabetics use to plan meals.

Diabetes, after all, is a disease that often requires careful management, and many individuals find those measurements useful. Allison Blass, a New Yorkbased diabetes writer who was diagnosed at age 8, estimates the number of carbs in every meal before she eats. She puts that number, along with her blood sugar,

into her insulin pump, which then calculates how much insulin she needs.

“For me, if it [a recipe] doesn’t tell me how many carbs are in a serving, it’s kind of useless to me,” said Blass, adding that “everyone with diabetes is a little different.”

That’s where Talbot comes in.

Talbot’s message for diabetics is that the guidelines that constrain their eating patterns—and lives—needn’t be so rigid.

Which isn’t to say he doesn’t pay attention to carbohydrate content as he formulates recipes—he’s just not doing it in a formulaic fashion. After being diagnosed with diabetes at age 11, Talbot was forced to acquire food knowledge that many people don’t ever pick up, even into adulthood.

After years of research and experiencing how his body reacts to food, he has become able to put together dishes that help diabetics keep their blood sugar level and put them on the road to better overall health. “I know it because I eat it,” Talbot said. “It’s how I live my life.”

The method starts with how he stocks his pantry, and in the book he lists pantry essentials like crushed tomatoes, garlic and chili paste.

He said that it’s great to have healthier base ingredients to build recipes on, like Truvia instead of white sugar, brown rice or chickpea flour instead of white flour and olive oil instead of butter.

Ingredients like these help build healthier versions of classic recipes, like his clam chowder, which is made with almond milk and rice flour rather than the usual heavy cream and processed white flour.

“It still has the necessities but it cuts the wasteful calories,” said Talbot.

Instead of being organized into sections for entrées, soups and salads, chapters in the book are categorized by when you might use them. The “Staying Energized” chapter has recipes to fuel workouts, while “Showtime” helps you plan a dinner party, once again furthering Talbot’s emphasis on the inextricable connection between the way we eat and

Sam Talbot, a semifinalist on Top Chef, was diagnosed with diabetes as a child, and he emphasizes healthy eating over strict carb counting in his new cookbook.

the way we live.

That message will resonate both within and outside of the diabetic community.

Blass, for one, explained that Talbot’s book offers diabetics options, something they don’t often see for themselves.

Foodies will find joy in his emphasis on texture, flavor and balance (and in the preface written by Eric Ripert, their

messiah).

And those seeking overall health and vitality outside a prescriptive box of brown rice and steamed vegetables may also flip open the cover.

“There’s no such thing as diabetic cooking or diabetic food,” said Talbot.

“The book is for anyone who just wants to learn more about an overall state of wellness for mind, body and soul.”

NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | otdowntown.com

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Healthy Manhattan

Giving Care at Home to Newborns

By ellen keohane Leaving the hospital for the first time with a new baby can be overwhelming for many first-time parents. Often, new mothers and fathers need extra help at home.

One source of support can come from the Visiting Nurse Service of NewYork (VNSNY), a not-for-profit home health care organization that provides newborn and maternal health care throughout NewYork City.

“All of the services are rendered in people’s homes,” explained Vivian Torres-

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Suarez, vice president of children and family services at VNSNY. “We’re available 24/7,” she said. “If there is a question or a concern or an emergency comes up, they can talk to a nurse and if a visit is indicated, we’re able to make that visit after normal business hours as well.”

In some cases, a new mother may call the organization directly to request home health care assistance for herself or her infant. In that instance, VNSNY evaluates the need with the woman’s doctor.

“We have to work with a physician, who then establishes and approves the plan for the home care service,” she said.

In almost all circumstances, VNSNY bills insurance providers, Torres-Suarez said.

“We turn no one away regardless of what they’re able to pay. We work with them to see how we can provide the services.”

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Most commonly, new mothers need assistance with breastfeeding, she said.

“That seems to be a primary reason for referring to us,” she said. The second most common service is infant care, she added.

For example, a nurse will teach new parents how to diaper, dress and bathe infants in a safe manner. “We also review safety techniques—making sure that the baby is never placed on their stomach while sleeping,” she added. “We make sure there are no extra things in the cribs.”

“Typically, a lot of the families that we care for are all teenage moms,” TorresSuarez said. “But it goes anywhere from being a teenage mom to being an older mom with a first-time baby who had perhaps some complications and needed to have a caesarean section.” In Manhattan, the group provides services to about 500

of this type of client a year, she said.

A registered nurse may visit the home to care for a post-caesarean wound.

However, while they are there, nurses will also weigh the baby and confirm healthy development, Torres-Suarez said. In addition, they can assist the mother with breast or bottle-feeding. “We want to make sure the baby is sucking correctly,” she said.

On average, the VNSNY nurse will make about four to five visits total to a family from the time they first come home from the hospital, unless there are complications that require the organization to remain involved. “During that time, we’re making sure the baby is doing fine,” she said. “We’re looking at the mom and making sure she is developing and her body is recuperating as well.”

ANNOUNCING A NEW CHOICE IN HOME CARE THAT COMES WITH OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE North Shore-LIJ Home Care Network now provides home care right here in Manhattan. That’s good news, because we’re also one of the most experienced home care agencies in New York State. And we know your neighborhood, because we’re part of the same health system as Lenox Hill Hospital.

So whether it’s for a child, an elderly parent or yourself, call us to bring the highest standard of care to your door.

Call (866) 651-4200 to find out more.

File: 14994 NS-LIJ Home Care Ad Size: 10” x 5.541” Publication: Manhatten Media Publication Day: Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011

North Shore-LIJ Home Care Network Expands Service in New York City Finding the right home health professional to care for you or your loved one after illness, injury or hospitalization requires careful thought.

The best place to start is with an experienced organization with a reputation for excellence that is connected with the best doctors and hospitals close to home. The North Shore-LIJ Home Care Network, one of the largest home care agencies in New York State, has been providing expert home care for more than 30 years in Queens and Long Island.

Access to World-Class Clinical Care

Now, the North Shore-LIJ Home Care Network has expanded its services into Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, with access to top physicians at Lenox Hill Hospital and Staten Island University Hospital, among other hospitals. Our nurses, therapists or other skilled providers are available to provide individualized care in the comfort and privacy of your home. The Home Care Network provides services to over 4,500 patients each day in the New York metropolitan area. We service both children and adults, addressing short-term health issues such as recovery from surgery to longer-term chronic care management of conditions including asthma, congestive heart failure, stroke, diabetes and other illnesses.

A registered nurse manages the day-to-day care needs of each patient, working closely with a physician whenever changes to the treatment plan are necessary. Our services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

High Quality Home Care, Personalized Service

The North Shore-LIJ Home Care Network can also connect you to the right level of care that best meets your needs. Anyone who is under a doctor’s care and requires the services of a registered nurse, physical, occupational or speech therapist, may be eligible. If you need help in the home with personal care, preparing meals or light housekeeping, we provide home health aides as well.

“The Home Care Network is looking forward to providing quality home care and personalized service to individuals in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island,” said Merryl Siegel, executive director of Post-Acute Services for the North Shore-LIJ Health System. “We know that patients generally recover quicker at home in familiar surroundings, with family and friends close by. Our clinical staff is committed to helping each patient reach his or her potential.”

The Home Care Network and its member agencies are accredited by the Joint Commission. It is part of the 15-hospital North Shore-LIJ Health System, the nation’s second-largest, non-profit, secular healthcare system, which delivers world-class clinical care throughout the New York metropolitan area.

To discuss your personal home care needs, call The Home Care Network at: 1-866-651-4200.

N OV E M B E R 10, 2011 | otd ow n tow n . c o m

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The Moody’s Center For Cardiovascular Health At New York Downtown Hospital

Healthy Manhattan

Through the generosity of the Moody’s Foundation, we were able to create a comprehensive, state-of-the-art center that focuses on the prevention, early detection, and treatment of cardiovascular disease through a holistic, integrative approach. Our team of physicians works with you to assess your cardiovascular risk and design individualized treatment plans that allow you to live a healthier, more active life. Additionally, our cardiovascular specialists can perform procedures at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — Weill Cornell Medical Center, allowing our patients access to innovative treatment options.

Our Cardiac Rehabilitation Center has been recognized for BUILDING FOR Aand HweEALTHIER TOMORROW its high level of service, offer Cardiovascular Wellness

Evaluations designed to attain approach to of medical conditions that are wntown Hospital is a center of excellence for a multi-faceted prevention and treatment achieving your best health.

UILDING FOR Aand aEALTHIER OMORROW revention, inpatient and ambulatory care, common to women; digital mammography; comprehensive ld of emergency preparedness. non-invasive cardiovascular assessment; and cancer screening Downtown Hospital is acommitted center of excellence for prevention of medical We are to providing a superior and leveltreatment of care and patient conditions that are and detection through Downtown Hospital’s affiliate, the nd Prevention, service, inpatientand and ambulatory care, and a common to women; digital mammography; comprehensive invite you to learn more about the services we offer. and effective health care experience at Strang Cancercardiovascular Prevention Center. heefficient field of emergency preparedness. non-invasive assessment; and cancer screening Consultative appointments and testing services are easily scheduled wntown Hospital and will have the best of both and detection through Downtown Hospital’s affiliate, the withprivate a single phone call, inatmost casesthe can be arranged and most up-to-date screening port of your own physician alongand with Bringing latest medical Center. research, nd an efficient and effective health care experience Strang Cancer Prevention performed within 24 best toservices.

48 Most major are pments in preventive carewill and specialty andinsurance the newestplans technological advancements to the Downtown Hospital and have the of hours. both techniques, accepted, and convenient appointments are available, including of Lower Manhattan, our Wellness andBy Prevention Team e support of your own private physician along with heart Bringing the latest medical research, most up-to-date screening Lisa ELainE HELd evelopments in early preventive care and services. techniques, andon thehow newest technological to the nd Prevention Teammorning provides a specialty broad of will advise you to preserve your advancements single most important and late range afternoon visits.

Type 2 diabetes runs in Kerry Watterheart of Lower Manhattan, our Wellness and Prevention Team ng a Women’s Health Program, dedicated to the asset…your good health! This is our commitment to you. son’s family.

B

H

T

YMCA Has Answers for Those at Risk to Develop Diabetes

ness and Prevention Team provides a broad range of will advise you on how to preserve your single most Hisimportant mother is in a wheelchair with nerve damage in her legs. His paternal grandmothcluding a Women’s Health Program, dedicated to the asset…your good health! This is our commitment to you.

Wellness & Prevention Center

er has it. His great-aunt had to have both legs amputated because of the disease.

Watterson, a 35-year-old New Yorker who works in nonprofit organizations, wanted to avoid the same fate. Last fall, he enrolled in the Diabetes Prevention Program hospital committed to meeting the healthcare needs of people who visit, live, and work in Lower Manhattan. at the Vanderbilt YMCA in Midtown. fall, after its success at Vanderbilt nity hospital committed to meeting the healthcare needs of people who visit, live, and work in Lower This Manhattan. and at another pilot location in Bed-Stuy, the Y has expanded the 16-week group lifestyle intervention program for individuals reet, New York, NY Telephone:(212) 312-5000 www.downtownhospital.org with pre-diabetes to 17 locations throughout 17010038 William Street, New York, NY 10038 Manhattan and the other boroughs. d Street, New York, NY 10038 Telephone:(212) 312-5000 www.downtownhospital.org Telephone: (646) 588-2526 While Type 2 diabetes is widely publi-

www.downtownwellness.org

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cized as an epidemic in the United States, less attention is paid to those with prediabetes, a high-risk state of elevated blood sugar levels that are just below the threshold for diabetes.

In a 2009 report, the New York Department of Health estimated that close to a quarter (23 percent) of New Yorkers have pre-diabetes. Among obese New Yorkers, it’s almost one-third. For those who have it, the path to developing diabetes is straight, narrow and not nearly long enough.

In 2002, the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a clinical research study involving 27 health centers across the United States, found that for this group of high-risk individuals, modest weight loss through dietary changes and increased physical activ-

Healthy Manhattan ity could significantly reduce the chance of developing diabetes. The study was a major breakthrough, but the lifestyle changes suggested were difficult for overtaxed health centers like hospitals to encourage.

Researchers at the University of Indiana thought the answer may be to get community organizations involved. In 2008, they tested the YMCA as a vehicle for getting DPP to the public. They published the results of the DEPLOY study, which showed the model to be effective, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that the YMCA is a promising vehicle for the dissemination of the DPP lifestyle intervention into the community,” the researchers wrote.

The YMCA then began rolling out the program across the country, leading to its current major expansion in New York.

“We need to practice more preventive medicine in this country. With a better diet, weight loss and exercise, a person can prevent the progression of diabetes or hold it off longer,” said Caroline Bohl, a diabetes educator at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. “It is not easy, but working in the changes slowly will make the person healthier overall.”

And that’s exactly what the YMCA program does. Individuals who are shown to have pre-diabetes via a blood test, or those with a significant family history (like Watterson), commit to one-hour group sessions once a week for 16 weeks.

A trained Y employee leads the sessions, similar in format to a disease support group.

At the first session, participants set a weight

goal and are given food tracking booklets in which they record when and what they eat each day.

The group leader then helps them calculate how many fat grams they should consume each day in order to reach their goal, and teaches them how to figure out the fat grams in the foods they eat.

Later sessions focus on increasing exercise and supporting each other through both processes. Success is measured by a 7 percent reduction in body weight and an increase in physical activity to at least 150 minutes per week.

The program has so far had very high levels of success.

Judy Ouziel, senior executive director of strategic initiatives at the YMCA of Greater New York, said that one reason for this is that the goals are realistic and the lifestyle changes are accessible.

“We’re not telling them what to eat or giving them a diet,” she said. In fact, Ouziel found that in the sessions she led, the aspect of the program that really affected people and motivated them to make changes was the food tracking system and their sudden awareness of how often and exactly what they were eating.

She also observed how affected participants were by the support they gained from each other. Watterson agreed.

“Everyone told their stories and talked about their battles,” he said. “You learn more about each other and understand your own issues by hearing them echoed in similar and dissimilar ways.”

For Watterson and many others, this program could mean the chance to avoid an irreversible disease before it’s too late.

‘A person can prevent the progression of diabetes or hold it off longer. It is not easy, but working in the changes slowly will make the person healthier overall.’

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Home Health Care To Keep You Independent And Safe AtWelcome Home!.to our family.

When it comes to home care, we know that every situation is different. That’s why the caring, compassionate and knowledgeable staff at Isabella Home Care tailors services to meet the each individual’s needs.

Isabella’s Home Care is part of Isabella Geriatric Center, a non-profit, nonsectarian organization that has pioneered in the care of the elderly in New York since 1875.

Our Home Care team works with you and your family to provide the right kind of support to so that you or a loved one can live safely and independently at home. Our skilled team of professionals will communicate with your physician and other health care providers to ensure you are getting the best level of care.

Our expertly trained care team will coordinate your health care, provide skilled nursing services, physical, occupational and speech therapy, nutrition counseling, meal preparation, transportation to medical appointments and much more.

With a longstanding history of providing quality care to New Yorkers, Isabella has developed a reputation as a leader in adopting the latest innovations in good care. We also use the latest technology to enhance the care our professional team provides.

Whether you or a loved one is need of home care - or any of Isabella’s many other services, we are prepared to meet help you and your family meet today’s challenges in providing care to those in needs.

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Diabetics use home blood glucose tests to help keep their sugar under control.

Isabella Welcome to our family N OV E M B E R 10, 2011 | otd ow n tow n . c o m

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CLASSI FI E DS Classified Advertising Department Information Telephone: 212-268-0384 | Fax: 212-268-0502 | Email: advertising@manhattanmedia.com Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm | Deadline: Monday 12 noon for same weeks’ issue

EMPLOYMENT

EARLY EDUCATION COORDINATOR WANTED Coordinate 3 early childhood education centers in the Northwest Bronx. Programs include child care (private pay and funded). Head Start and UPK for children 1-5 years old.

Supervise large staff, develop budgets, and work with Board and Parent Association.

Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education NYS teacher’s Certification (birth-2nd grade) 10 years administrative experience in ECE required. Supervisory Licenses, SDA, SAS and SBL recommended.

Resumes and 3 letters of reference to employment@mmcc.org.

PERSONAL OFFICE ASSISTANT NEEDED Office Assistant needed. Typical duties includes; • Pack Shipments Supplies; • Track Shipments; • Receive Shipments and Stock Inventory; • Data Entry; • Routing Mail; • QA Inspections.

Experience & proficient in Quick book, Excel and Word Applications. e-Mail resumes to “davewalshdesk@att.net Interested Applicants must be 18+ yrs above.”

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ANALYST. NYC. Financial analysis & risk mgmt for mortgage industry; test related software. Req’d: MA Econ; knowledge of fixed income, derivatives, financial forecasting & modeling, econometrics, accounting, financial spreadsheet, VB, SAS, SQL. M-F, 9-5. Send resume to Job#3, Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp., 80 Maiden Ln, Ste.1401, NY, NY 10038 THINKING OF MOVING TO CONNECTICUT? Full-time and Vacation homes. 15 years exp. selling in Fairfield County, CT. Rob Grodman, Realtor. The Riverside Realty Group. 203-952-6117 www.RobGrodman.com email: westportagent@hotmail.com

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Paintings, Silver, Jewelry Bric-a-Brac, Pottery, Furniture Anything Old

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Laptop Screen Repair Data Recovery $49.99+up Virus Removal $55.99 20% discount to all students with ID on all services 15% on parts and merchandise 10% on laptops!

Not a student? Get 10% off on everything!!

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, Number 1257500 for Beer, Wine & Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer, Wine & Liquor at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at: 1756 E Tremont Ave, Bronx, NY 10460 for on-premises consumption. Liquid Lounge LLC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, Number 12576762 has been applied for by Adan Chikurin Inc d/b/a Chikurin to sell Liquor, Wine & Beer in a restaurant at retail for on-premises consumption under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at: 1105 Quentin Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11229

for the unbelievable price of $149

Experts In Understanding and Handling Seniors’ Computer Issues Call IT Doc NYC Today!

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Silver, Chandeliers, Paintings, Rugs, Brick-a-Brac, Estates & All contents from homes.

718-332-9709

Request for Bids

www.RoomsForImprovement.net

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, number Pending for Beer & Wine has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer & Wine at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 102-16 43rd Ave., Corona, NY 11368 for on premises consumption. El Madrono Corp d/b/a Restaurante Gaby.

COMPUTER

REFURB SPECIAL We Will Completely Refurbish Your Old Computer

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CARPETS & UPHOLSTERY professionally steam-cleaned. 20 years experience. JP Carpet. 212-831-1189

BUY/SELL Place your ad here. 212-268-0384 

Manhattan Antiques

POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. We will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. Manhattan Media Classifieds assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.

LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, Number 1257908 has been applied for by NYC Chicken & Grill Inc d/b/a Chicky’s to sell Wine & Beer in a restaurant at retail for on-premises consumption under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at: 355 East 86th St., NY, NY, 10028 PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANT TO LAW, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at 66 John Street, 11th floor, on a petition from C.S.L.L. Rest. Corp. to continue to, maintain, and operate an enclosed sidewalk café at 1271 Third Avenue in the Borough of Manhattan for a term of two years.

Requests for copies of the proposed revocable consent agreement may be addressed to: Department of Consumer Affairs, ATTN: Foil Officer, 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004.

Liquor at retail in a restaurant known as: Green Tree Chinese Restaurant Inc d/b/a 123 Nikko under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at: 1280 Amsterdam Avenue, NY, NY 10027 for on premise consumption.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, Number Pending for Beer, Wine & Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer, Wine & Liquor at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at: Amsterdam 726 Inc, 726 Avenue, NY, NY 10025 for on -premise consumption.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, Serial # Pending for Beer, Wine & Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer, Wine & INSERTION ORDER: LPK5430WSS PUBLICATION: WEST SIDE SPIRIT RUN DATE: THURS., NOVEMBER 3, 2011 SECTION: CLASSIFIED/PUBLIC NOTICE AD SIZE: 1 COL X 35 LINES ADVERTISER: NYC PARKS DEPT

RENOVATION, OPERATION&MAINTENANCE OF TWO (2) NEWSSTANDS, VERDI SQUARE, MANHATTAN All bids submitted in response to this RFB must be submitted no later than Friday, November 18, 2011 at 3 pm.

For more information, contact: Jeremy Holmes, Revenue Inspector, Division of Revenue and Concessions, 830 Fifth Avenue, the Arsenal-Central Park, Room 407, New York, NY 10065 or call (212) 360-3455 or to download the RFB, visit http://www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities and click on the “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” link. Once you have logged in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFB’s description. You can also email him at jeremy.holmes@parks.nyc.gov.

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� TALK I N G U P D OWNTOWN Manhattan Media

editorial

exeCUTive eDiTOR Allen Houston ahouston@manhattanmedia.com MaNagiNg eDiTOR Marissa Maier mmaier@manhattanmedia.com CONTRiBUTiNg eDiTOR aND sPeCiaL seCTiONs eDiTOR Josh Rogers jrogers@manhattanmedia.com aRTs aND CULTURe eDiTOR Mark Peikert mpeikert@manhattanmedia.com FeaTUReD CONTRiBUTORs Whitney Casser, Penny Grey, Tom Hall, Mary Morris, Robby Ritacco, Lillian Rizzo, Paulette Safdieh CONTRiBUTiNg PHOTOgRaPHeRs George Denison, Veronica Hoglund, Wyatt Kostygan, Andrew Schwartz iNTeRNs Kristina Reisinger, McCamey Lynn

adVertiSinG

advertising@manhattanmedia.com PUBLisHeR Gerry Gavin ggavin@manhattanmedia.com DiReCTOR OF NeW BUsiNess DeveLOPMeNT Dan Newman assOCiaTe PUBLisHeRs Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth aDveRTisiNg MaNageR Marty Strongin sPeCiaL PROjeCTs DiReCTOR Jim Katocin seNiOR aCCOUNT exeCUTives Verne Vergara, Rob Gault, Mike Suscavage DiReCTOR OF eveNTs & MaRkeTiNg Joanna Virello jvirello@manhattanmedia.com exeCUTive assisTaNT OF saLes Jennie Valenti jvalenti@manhattanmedia.com

BuSineSS adMiniStration

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PRODUCTiON

PRODUCTiON & CReaTive DiReCTOR Ed Johnson ejohnson@manhattanmedia.com eDiTORiaL DesigNeR Sahar Vahidi svahidi@manhattanmedia.com aDveRTisiNg DesigN Quran Corley OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN is published weekly Copyright © 2011 Manhattan Media, LLC 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, N.Y. 10016 Editorial (212) 284-9734 Fax (212) 268-2935 Advertising (212) 284-9715 General (212) 268-8600 E-mail: otdowntown@manhattanmedia.com Website: OTDowntown.com OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN is a division of Manhattan Media, LLC, publisher of West Side Spirit, Chelsea Clinton News, The Westsider, City Hall, The Capitol, The Blackboard Awards, New York Family, and Avenue magazine.

To subscribe for 1 year, please send $75 to OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN, 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10016 Recognized for excellence by the New York Press Association

Dr. Robert Murayama chief medical officer, asian Pacific islanders coalition on hiV/aids

| By penny grey

photo credit penny grey

PResiDeNT/CeO Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com gROUP PUBLisHeR Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com CFO/COO Joanne Harras jharras@manhattanmedia.com DiReCTOR OF iNTeRaCTive MaRkeTiNg aND DigiTaL sTRaTegy Jay Gissen jgissen@manhattanmedia.com

O

n Nov. 3, the Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition on HIV/ AIDS (APICHA) broke ground—literally and figuratively —with the opening of its Transgender Clinic. Often called one of the city’s most progressive health centers because of their work with the LGBT community, APICHA’s new clinic will provide comprehensive medical services for the transgender community, including hormone therapy and mental and social services. Dr. Robert Murayama, the head of APICHA’s medical team, answered our questions about the challenges of opening the clinic and the shifting attitudes of the medical community toward transgender people.

How long have you been chief medical officer at APICHA? I became chief medical officer three and half years ago, but I’ve been volunteering on and off at APICHA for the last 15 to 20 years. I’ve known for a long time that APICHA is an organization doing good and important things. It began as a grassroots advocacy organization and gradually grew to include prevention and then social services and eventually all medical care, with bilingual case management all along the way. It’s a great honor and privilege as a physician to be able to push the envelope and promote the health needs of sexual minorities.

What’s the most exciting aspect of opening APICHA’s new Transgender Clinic?

That’s a tough question. What’s exciting is that we can think about how to solve a problem and then put the pieces together to solve it. There are such disparities in care for transgender and other sexual minorities. I grew up believing that access to health care was a basic human right, but there’s a huge divide between the haves and the have nots. When you look at LGBT folks, they often don’t have access to basic health rights. Fortyone percent of transgender people have attempted suicide; 20 percent of transgender people have been refused medical care. It’s not right. And with APICHA’s new Transgender Clinic, we can work to reverse those statistics. What’s exciting is that we’re the first transgender clinic in New York to promote health and wellness in primary care.

And what’s the most challenging aspect

 OU R TOWN DOWNTOWN | NOVE M B E R 10, 2011

of opening the new clinic?

Funding, no doubt. People always say there’s a lot of money in health care, but that’s not really the case when it comes to taking care of marginalized people on the fringes of society. Most funding for sexual minorities in the past has been based on HIV prevention. Transgender people have four times the infection rate of the general population. But HIV shouldn’t be the entire issue. We’re very lucky and grateful to have such a generous three-year grant from the Paul Rapoport Foundation to make the APICHA Transgender Clinic possible.

APICHA’s Transgender Clinic is located Downtown, near the intersection of Broadway and Canal. Was there a specific reason to develop the clinic in the downtown neighborhood?

Yes, there was a very specific choice.

APICHA has grown up around service to Asian and Pacific Islanders, as well as LGBT people and people of color who are HIV positive, so we wanted to be near our patient base. Because of our roots, we’ve always been in the Asian community. It makes a lot of sense for us to be here near so many underserved patient populations. Beyond that, the seeds of change in New York City are embedded here Downtown. The first immigrants to New York all those centuries ago started down on this end of the island, and today, 60 percent of Asians in New York City are recent immigrants. So, our new location

is very “edgy”—we’re right on the edge of Chinatown and Tribeca. It’s ideal. At one point, APICHA was in Chelsea, but we found we needed to be closer to our patient base. So here we are.

How have you seen attitudes to transgender people change over the years of your involvement in the medical community?

In the medical community, they have changed tremendously. When I entered my residency, the guidelines we were following were very different than they are now. You had to essentially prove to the medical community that you were transgender. There were all sorts of strange barriers to appropriate care. It’s one thing to not harm, but it’s another to be ignorant and refuse to monitor folks. But the latest standards of care dictate that a physician’s job is to see how he or she can help transgender people.

Our job is to help people through transition, to help them understand what to expect and to meet their needs—not to question their needs or ask them to prove their needs. So, in short, there have been significant changes to treatment and care of transgender patients, and here at APICHA, we’re proud to be a part of that.

Transgender people can’t be invisible in society any longer. People are finally paying attention, and we’re paying attention by opening this clinic.

on topic

The Marriage of Romance and Frugality

M

oney and relationships are two things that are very dear to my heart.

If you have money to spare, you are one of the select few. If you have a significant other, having low dividends can create its own headache. I, thankfully, attended college without meeting Sallie Mae, and I only hope to have a cordial relationship with her when I apply for a mortgage.

I’m in a serious, monogamous, happy relationship. When we first began dating, both of our finances were considerably low. Scratch that—we were downright broke. Love is generous, but it doesn’t pay the rent, the cable or the electric bill.

But just because we were poor, we didn’t skimp on the things that brought us joy as a couple, like spending time together. We just had to get more creative in our approach. So, with great joy, I bring to you a couple of date ideas that will help you out when the bills are due.

Donate. You can incorporate this into your low-budget date by taking your significant other to donate blood, plasma, their luscious locks or their time.

It technically isn’t donating if you’re being compensated, but it warrants that term because you are also saving lives. Donat-

ing plasma can get you up to $35 per weekly visit, which means couples can make up to $500 a month with regular visits. Also, if you have a head full of hair, donating it via www.buyandsellhair.com, a hair-trading website, can pay up to $100 an inch. Pay Offs: $35–$100; www.bloodbanker.com/plasma.

Focus Groups. A focus group can be a pretty lucrative dating gig. You two will simply be asked to share your opinions on an advertisement or product. Bigwig companies hire these market research companies to gain insight into their products. Most focus groups range from eight to 12 people and are no more than two hours. Focus groups pay immediately with cash or check after the survey has been completed. Pay Offs: $50–$300 an hour.

Use Your Credit Card. But not in that way: most credit cards offer cardholders special deals and discounts. For example, Bank of America grants its cardholders free access to over 150 museums on the first weekend of every month. Also, the major credit card issuers sponsor many sporting events and set aside special tickets at discounted prices for cardholders. Citibank will be selling presale tickets for the muchanticipated Jay-Z and Kanye West “Watch

the Throne” tour. How about that for free culture? Pay Offs: $100-plus in savings.

Sit on Your Rump. If you are in a metropolitan area such as Los Angeles or New York, you can sign up to be a seat filler for major award shows. You may not get direct pay, but you will be rubbing elbows with celebrities at the MTV Awards, the American Music Awards and The Grammys. Also, try sitting in as part of a studio audience. These shows can be a lot of fun, and often give you the chance to meet celebrities, get autographs, free T-shirts, CDs, posters and other giveaways. Pay Offs: $1,000 in ticket savings.

Be in the Background. Being a background actor can actually be a lot of fun.

The sessions are long, usually eight to 10 hours, but you can get up to $500 for being on set. You just have to be good at taking direction and promise not to get starstruck as your favorite celebrity walks across the scene. Some advertisements are looking for a special look—I saw one ad for a frumpy, hippie chick and her frumpy friends that paid $400 a day. If you come in as a couple, you can walk away with close to a month’s rent in one day.

Clients are usually compensated the day of by cash or check. Pay Offs: $200-plus per assignment

8 MiLLion StoRiES

MARISSA MAIER on the last thing that made her say ‘Wow!’

“

What was the last thing that made you go, wow?” asked Garrison Keillor, the smooth-voiced host of A Prairie Home Companion, of a group of 1,400 at The Moth at Town Hall last week during a celebration of stories and storytellers.

Over the course of the night, Keillor and the event’s five other performers proceeded to answer that question. Naturally, some responses weren’t suitable for publication—particularly Keillor’s—but Elna Baker’s moment came when a friend suggested she look at porn on the Internet. Her first thought was, “Oh wow, you can find it there!” And Tina McElroy Ansa felt a wonderful wave of surprise the day she lay back on her hotel bed and saw a star motif on her ceiling (her story for the evening involved a star).

As Keillor, Baker, Ansa, Mike Birbiglia and Jonathan Ames took to the stage, I found myself contemplating my last “Wow!” moment.

As it happened, it had occurred just a few weeks ago at The Public Theatre on Lafayette, where I was seeing Mike Daisey’s new one-man show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” played at a heart-popping level as the audience shuffled into the small theater. As I made my way to my seat, I passed the small stage with its two props: a glass of water and a desk. Those two everyday items, in that context, were what prompted my “Wow.” Those were the favored props my stepfather, Spalding Gray, used when he performed. When I was growing up, my family and I spent countless hours watching him rehearse, tech and perform his monologues, until what had seemed to us at the time to be trivial moments in a

day were spun into a beautiful story of humor, heartbreak and love.

Seven years have passed since Spalding died, though his influence on Downtown theater and performers remains powerful. At the Moth event, my mother was presented with the 2011 Moth Award, granted posthumously to Spalding for his “life and work.” Ames, who was influenced by him and has known our family for a few years, told a series of recollections about his encounters with my stepfather: meeting him at a party, hoping he would see Ames’ show at P.S. 122.

Ames ended with a story I found touching, a memory from when he was acting in a play of Spalding’s work that my mom co-directed with Lucy Sexton. The piece closed with video footage of Spalding dancing across the stage during his monologue “Morning, Noon and Night,” and Ames said the play’s cast was in tears every time it played.

As time has passed, Spalding’s absence has grown less visceral for me, but there are still times I am walloped by a familiar scent, an object or just a glass of water on a stage. That’s when my memories of him are more palpable. That night at The Public, I was reminded of how he would quietly walk on stage, take a sip of water, purse his lips and only then launch into his story, for an audience of tens or hundreds or thousands. Each gesture is cataloged in my brain.

My “Wow” moment at The Public and the Moth event left me more convinced than ever that there are still countless Spalding stories to be told. Now, however, it’s those who loved and knew him who must do the telling.

Put it Up For Sale. But don’t do it online. Nix the modern eBay and Craigslist sales, and actually hold one in your front or backyard AttiyyA Anthony or at your local community center. As a couple, you can spend the whole day together choosing the goods to be sold, selling them and counting the profit. The fall is a good time to put items up for sale, as many consumers are browsing for interesting holiday knick-knacks for their friends and family members, and you two are looking for extra money to do the same. Pay Offs: $10–unlimited, depending on items sold.

Risk it at the Casino. If you’re one of those high-risk, balls-to-the-wall couples, then taking a trip to the casino might be right up your alley. Mind you, you also need a substantial amount of luck on your side. And you shouldn’t risk your last dollar. But if you have a little financial wiggle room to spare, you can make some money at the casino, as long as you know when to bow out. Pay Offs: Depends on your luck.

See, it pays to be together.

� STR E ET S C E N E

Last week, photographer Scot Surbeck caught volunteers charging batteries to supply electrical power for the kitchen and media tent at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park. Surbeck's work can be found on his website, cityclickr.net.

PhOtO By ScOt SuRBEck

NOVE M B E R 10, 2011 | otdowntown.com

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