Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

“I want to show you my Wall of Life,” says Rob Davis as he opens the door to his home office with a flourish. Rob’s a consummate creative. The wall, a pictorial time line of Rob memorabilia, is filled with framed photos and painted portraits. It goes back a long way – Rob, polymath, philanthropist, performer and prolific composer and author who once walked across hot coals, is 78. Here’s Rob during his teenage modeling years (he regularly appeared in Seventeen magazine…

Continue Reading →

The cushions on the couch are perfectly aligned, a trio of decorative pillows marching lockstep across them. Shirley is from Germany. The books are artfully arranged on small suspended shelves. The kitchen countertops are unoccupied by appliances. And there are no toys scattered across the living room floor. You’d never know that two adults and a 3-year-old live in this apartment, and that’s because Shirley Roberts makes her living organizing people’s spaces. It’s not…

Continue Reading →

IPhone glued to her ear, Lisa Devine pulls her stroller up to 2nd Chance Candles and unlocks the front door. Lisa’s the face — and guiding force — behind 2nd Chance Candles. At 23rd Street and 21st Avenue across from a row of shops, 2nd Chance Candles has been the source of much neighborhood curiosity — and speculation — since its debut this year. Part of that’s due to its limited schedule. Right now, it’s open only on the weekends; Lisa has three young…

Continue Reading →

I hung an enormous vintage mirror in my bedroom at the beginning of the year. It was, if you will, a gift from the grave. It belonged to Marie Milo, who would have celebrated her 98th birthday this week. Marie loved to go out. As showy as a peacock and as tough as her perfectly painted nails, Marie, 5-foot-3 and 90 pounds, was larger than life. Marie wasn’t the life of the party. She the party. She quaffed margaritas (the message on her answering machine said, “I’m out drinking…

Continue Reading →

The sound of the piano, powerfully playful, echoes through June Xiao’s duplex apartment. With her sleek Siberian, Milford, at her feet, she heads to the basement, down two sets of steep steps that are so narrow you almost have to turn sideways, where one of her students is practicing on the Hamburg Steinway. June’s from Shanghai, China. (The gleaming grand piano, in flamed mahogany, came in through the garage legless and was reassembled on site.) Benny, who at 15 is the same…

Continue Reading →