It’s the starving part of artist that Daniel Francis finds hard to stomach. His hang-dog jeans, cuffed at the ankles to take up the slack, were made for a much weightier man, the one he used to be.
Daniel has made art his work.
He saw an old picture of himself recently and was aghast because his head looked like one of those round balloons you see in comic strips.
He doesn’t want to be that guy again, but now when he turns sideways, you can’t see him. This is problematic because,…
It takes a while for Violeta M. Mileo to answer the front door. She has to walk down two flights of stairs, and she’s being extra careful. A couple of months ago, she fell and gouged her shoulder.
She ended up in the emergency room.Vincent and Violeta have been together 40 years.
That time, and this, she should have taken the chair lift that was installed for her husband, Vincent, but she doesn’t like to make anyone wait.
That includes Vincent, who is standing on the top landing. He’s…
The Tamale Lady. That’s what everyone calls the weary young-old woman who pushes her shopping cart to the middle of the block and sets up on the sidewalk, selling breakfast for $1 and $2.The Tamale Lady at her Astoria Boulevard station.
She does have a name. It may or may not be Idalia Garcia. It’s not important. But her story is.
Idalia has been The Tamale Lady for three of the nine years she has called America her home. Her family was poorer than poor, and she had a pretty hard life…
People stop and stare and hold their babbling babies up to the wrought-iron railing. It’s not every day you see a koi pond on Ditmars Boulevard. Or a garden that looks as though it outgrew .Yes, there are koi in the pond.
The haute design continues inside, where the books in the way-too-cool-for-Astoria living room are artfully arranged by color (red, blue, purple and white), and the deep hue of the Gerbera daisy in the vase on the side table matches the burnt-orange curtains in the dining…
Jack Chiello is a low-key guy. He’s also a man of few words. Getting him to talk about himself is like trying to pry a pearl from an oyster with a plastic toothpick.Jack’s the owner of Astoria Bakery.
Now, singing, that’s another matter. He could croon until the moon turns blue. But this is not something he volunteers. He’ll only open up if you ask him about his CD. The one that he’s selling at Astoria Bakery, his mom-and-pop pastry shop.
The tiny two-counter store…
