Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

You wanna hear something funny? Comedian Matt Storrs named his petulant 6-year-old Dachshund after a wheel of cheese. Matt is a lawyer and a comedian. Commandant Cameron Quincy Camembert, Cam for short, is throwing a tantrum that’s as long as his alliterative appellation. Matt, whose curly coppery locks are the same color as Cam’s, takes a bite out of a carrot and offers it as a treat. But Cam’s no fool: He holds out for a piece of meat. It isn’t until Matt picks him up…

Continue Reading →

The most important – and astounding — thing to know about pastry chef Ankhana “Anne” Ward is that she grew up without an oven. Anne’s the owner of Pastries by Anne. She nonchalantly reveals this tantalizing tidbit as an afterthought while she’s whipping up another almond mango cake for her newly opened bakery, which is, of course, called Pastries by Anne. Her admission is a sweet amuse-bouche, and it takes us to Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, where Anne – she started…

Continue Reading →

“The bass is cool,” declares Jeff Dingler. “In any style of music, it’s always a countermelody happening in the background in between the melodic instruments and the drums.” Jeff plays the electric bass and the upright bass. Want to hear a little Gershwin? Jeff takes off his shoes at the door, slides his feet into slippers and sits down in his living room.  When he plays, he loses himself in the sound. He was only going to play one short piece, but how about some jazz? He…

Continue Reading →

The students aren’t here yet, so Sofia Christakis climbs the ladder and swooshes down the bright blue slide. Sofia is the founder of Puzzles. Once she lands, smiling, she heads to the swing, where she sways serenely back and forth, a metronome in motion. Hey, these things have to be tested out to make sure they are safe for the little ones, don’t they? Play, you see, is much more than a game to Sofia, the founder of Puzzles, a learning center whose mission is to spread inclusion…

Continue Reading →

Consider yourself forewarned: The art studio is small, and Matt Albano’s personality is prodigious. Things may get a little cramped in here. Matt Albano, aka Oddball Matt. When he opens the grey metal door, it’s like the scene from where things morph magically from black and white to Technicolor. Paintings paper the walls in cascades of color, their hues accented by works stacked around the space like sardines. “Don’t worry,” Matt says as he runs his fingers through his…

Continue Reading →