Astoria Characters: The Art-Foundry Owner

What’s your title? It’s not meant to be a funny question, but it makes Michael Perrotta of Sculpture House Casting laugh. “We’re a family business,” he says. “We don’t have titles. I’ve done everything from sweeping the floor to doing the patina on a bronze. Nothing is above or below anyone here.” Michael, who handles the business aspects of the foundry, is sitting at an art-scarred antique oak desk. It belongs…

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Astoria Characters: The Voice of Chinamerica Radio

The first time Steve Warren stepped in front of a radio-station microphone, he was wearing a bow tie. “I was in third grade and sang ,” says Steve, a tall man with an easy-going, ear-pleasing voice. “An organist in a suit was playing the music live. They gave me a wristwatch.” The timepiece, which Steve wishes he had preserved as a souvenir, turned out to a prescient present. Steve, the host of Envision Radio Network’s The Country Oldies Show,…

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Astoria Characters: The Street Painter

Anthony Cappetto is standing on the sidewalk on 30th Avenue. This is not how he’s generally known for making contact with concrete. Anthony is an internationally acclaimed street painter, and when he’s working on one of his illusionary 3-D murals, he’s sitting or lying on the ground using colored chalk to find the art in the asphalt. It’s the kind of creative endeavor where you get your hands dirty. And where your art is always wiped out. “I…

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Astoria Characters: The Funnyman

When you’ve joked around all night, it’s hard to be awake, much less funny, at 8 a.m. Comic Ben Rosenfeld is swigging bottled water and swiping the sleep from his eyes, which he confesses aren’t quite ready to open. Whose bright idea was it to do this interview at such an awful hour? Busted! It was Ben who set the time. He was joking. Well sort of. He also suggested noon, so he didn’t really think 8 would be the chosen option. “I’m…

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The High-Flying Acrobat

“Why walk when you can fly?” Bobby Hedglin-Taylor answers his own question by starting to scale a giant London Plane tree in Ditmars Park. This probably isn’t a good idea. Anything could happen. He could fall. He could reach the top. He wonders, momentarily, whether it’s illegal to climb a park-property tree. It’s too late to worry. He jumps to the top of a park bench so he can grab the lower branches. He looks upward. It’s nice to say hi to the sky, but he’d rather be in motion. Let’s…

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