New York City's IMAGE, peeled like an onion

NYC24.com, in its fifth issue, shows how New York City is obsessed with image - both personal and public.

Our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

We caught New Yorkers stealing glances at themselves in plate glass windows and half-empty subway cars. We watched them pluck the most healthful-looking products from grocery shelves and apply makeup before begging for a job. We listened to they way they cheered for presidential hopefuls and examined foreign lands and unfamiliar cultures.

In 11 stories, our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

As the issue unfolded over the last month, we began to see the world as a series of images cascading, one behind the other, layers of an infinitely complex onion that as reporters, we had pledged to peel.

We canvassed Staten Island, lost tapes of DMC of Run DMC rapping against domestic violence and for NYC24, gawked at hot pants, flirted with getting a Mohawk, learned how to scrum and nearly fainted while filming eye surgery.

We hope you enjoy digging beneath the image of NYC.

Lisa Biagiotti, Executive Editor & Lizzie Stark, Managing Editor
nyc24image@gmail.com

Clowns don't goof around on environment

The Green Circus is coming to Astoria this weekend!

Through skits and tricks, the Green Circus, a troupe of clowns, artists and teachers, aims to help create a new generation of environmentalists who will value renewable and recyclable resources, and detest power plants and other polluters.

Their motto is “saving the planet one clown at a time.” Like similar acts, the group seeks to perform in every bit of open space, hoping their pro-green acts will tickle children pink.

“It’s not like we do this Power Point presentation that Al Gore is standing in front of,” said Ezra Silverman, one of the members of the Green Circus troupe, referring to Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

This brand of clowning provides a comic counterpoint to the environmental doomsday books and documentaries with laughter.

Green Circus Shows:

Saturday, April 26
12 to 4 p.m.
Dope Swan and The Green Circus Present
“How to Build a Community”
Earth Day in Rainey Park
33-01 Vernon Boulevard, Astoria Waterfront

Saturday, May 3
1 to 4 p.m.
“Green Circus Rock it in Rockaway”
Beach 29th Street @ the Boardwalk
Far Rockaway

Clowns tackle environmental causes, tickle audiences is a multimedia story produced by Sydney Beveridge, Dave Burdick, Tom Davis and Matthew P. Moll for the Hijinks issue of nyc24.com.

Nerdy Games Rock Bars

If you're longing to re-do the time you were ousted in that grade-school spelling bee, pulverized in debate class, or left in outer orbit in Solarquest (my childhood favorite). Now is your second chance. And you can play games while sipping cocktails in bars!

Board games, spelling bees, debates and quiz nights are already standard fare during off-peak nights in New York City bars, but attendance to bar games has become more popular with the rise of online game playing. Web sites like Pogo.com and Yahoo Games, which feature online versions of classic board games and new online gaming applications like Scrabulous, have revitalized interest in playing games in real life, or at least made them cool enough to headline nights at local city bars.

Did you know that "hijinks" is the only word in the English language with three consecutive dotted letters? Super nerdy. For more, check out Nerdy Games Rock Bars, a multimedia story produced by Lisa Biagiotti and Lauren Feeney for the Hijinks issue of nyc24.com.

Most of the nerdy bars we found are in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Are there any intellectual games in Queens' bars?

Living The Hip-Hop Life In Corona, Queens

At first glance, a high-end urban lifestyle boutique seems out of place above the Kennedy Fried Chicken on Junction Blvd. in Corona.

The wafting odor of fried chicken and the high-pitched sounds of electronic toys of the Chinese wholesaler next door could easily distract from what’s in between: a minimalist 10-foot-wide brick wall painted black.

Two brass-potted shrubs flank the glass entrance, and except for a black-and-white flag on the building’s second floor, All the Right boutique is almost invisible.

Owner George Landin said All the Right has transitioned from a record store with a recording studio and barber shop to a high-end apparel boutique in accordance with hip-hop’s four elements: DJ (disc jockey), MC (Master of Ceremonies), B-boy (break dancer), and graffiti.

Since 1998, All the Right has been a fixture in this working-class, mostly Latino neighborhood, attracting local rappers and graffiti artists and generating buzz by word of mouth as far away as Japan. Landin, who grew up in Corona, is now in the process of expanding All the Right’s vision and vibe to Los Angeles where he is scheduled to open another store in late February.

This story was published in the Queen's Tribune.

Indo-Carribeans Worship the Goddess Kali

At the Rajkumari Center for Indo-Caribbean Arts and Culture in Richmond Hill, Indo-Caribbean traditions from Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname are taught, preserved and passed on through sacred ritual and social interaction.

Every Sunday the Indo-Carribean community (originally from the Madrasi region of India) gathers at the Shri Maha Kali Devi Mandir temple on the border of Queens and Brooklyn for hours of healings and song devoted to the Hindu Mother Goddess Kali.

Click on the photo below to launch the audio slideshow.

This audio slideshow and accompanying story about folk arts in Queens is published on Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism's website, City of Change.

Tai Chi Is Winning Over Converts To Exercise

Tai Chi seems to be growing in popularity for young and old, thin and overweight, and sufferers of disease or abuse. Different various ethnic and age groups find the practice appealing.

“The gamut of interest runs from children to college students,” said Dino Blanche, a 47-year-old, African-American Tai Chi instructor in Elmhurst. “As people's health conditions are growing troublesome, with obesity and diabetes, it’s not just for the elderly.”

Researchers have studied the health benefits of Tai Chi, ranging from reduced blood pressure and heart problems, improved functionality for chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis, to general stress management.

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art that combines moving meditation, exercise and self-defense. It was founded on the Taoist belief that good health results from balanced chi (life energy).

The full article is published in the Queens Chronicle.

Skaters Kick-Push or Carry Down Queens Blvd.

"Real skaters don't walk with their skateboards, they ride them," said Sean Ewing, manager of the sneaker and skateboard store, Format, on Queens Boulevard.

Today, the skater image popularized by music videos, YouTube and video games has eclipsed the rebel skater. Teenagers in Elmhurst, Queens have adopted the revised skateboard image they see in music videos like rapper Lupe Fiasco's 2006 song "Kick Push."

New skaters seek out the glamorized look of skinny jeans, designer logo t-shirts, short rimmed baseball hats, brand new Nike SB dunks, and of course, skateboards...in hand.

This story was published in the Queens Tribune.

Below is a map of stores and places to skate in and around Elmhurst, Queens.


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Poet pens love note to LeFrak City

My City is LeFrak by Gulchekhra Alimova

My Home, my sweet Home
You are my skin and bone
You have big country tone
Canada, London and Rome

Look, how better life living
How blue-sky pool swimming
Food-Bazaar is shopping
Library is in my building

View from my room dining
Express Horace Harding
Garages and public parking
Looking, thinking, loving

I want you always shining
People are lucky smiling
I hope you never crying
Oh, pray God blessing

My romantic wide park
Be never short and dark
I wish always Good luck
Oh, my City is LeFrak

Gulchekhra Alimova is a poet living in LeFrak City. She is also the President of Vatan Asia, Inc., an immigrant association dedicated to Central Asians living in the U.S. Other poems by Alimova include I love you, America! and Forgive Me Please, My Lovely Lord.

The Low-Down on Corona

Miranda Siegel takes a look at the changing face of Corona in amNewYork. Check it out for a list of places to eat, shop, things to do, as well as a glimpse of life in the thriving neighborhood.