By Jake Coyle

Many consider playground basketball to be the truest expression of the sport. It’s basketball without referees, coaches or sneaker deals. Anyone can play, so long as they call “Next.”

A new documentary, Doin’ it in the Park, is a loving ode to the blacktop world of New York City pick-up basketball. With more than 700 courts, it’s the mecca of pick-up basketball, featuring places like Rucker Park in Harlem and the West 4th St. court, a kind of fish bowl of nonstop basketball on view for commuters and tourists in lower Manhattan. Basketball is woven into the asphalt fabric of New York.

“Every court has a story,” says Doin’ it in the Park co-director Bobbito Garcia, who made the film with Kevin Couliau, a French photographer of outdoor basketball.

When Garcia was found on a recent sunny spring day at a Village court off Hudson Street, he was calmly knocking down shot after shot: “You take it, `cause I won’t miss,” he says, offering the ball less with arrogance than matter-of-fact politeness.

Garcia, 46, is not your average documentarian. A New York native and former basketball pro in Puerto Rico, he’s carved out a career as a DJ, as an author of a book on shoes, as a New York Knicks pro basketball sideline reporter and through countless other basketball-promoting activities.

“I have no aspirations to make another film,” he says. “It’s not like I got enchanted by a subject and dove into it for two years to create a film and now I’m to my next project. This is it. I just want to play ball.”

He and Couliau made Doin’ it in the Park by visiting 180 courts across all five boroughs over the course of the 2010 summer. They often traveled between courts on bike, Couliau’s backpack full of film equipment, Garcia’s with just a basketball. Couliau crashed on Garcia’s couch in Harlem.

They tried to capture the culture of New York basketball, one dented backboard at a time. Their urban odyssey took them from rough Coney Island courts, (the point guard hotbed that produced NBA stars Stephan Marbury and Sebastian Telfair), to the daily prisoner games of Rikers Island.

The movie is something of a cultural guide to the world of New York playground basketball, (Garcia disdains the demeaning “street ball” name), cataloguing its courts, its legends, its local characters and its peculiar customs.

The film takes the viewer through the sometimes fraught process of getting into the most competitive runs; examines the fierce competitiveness that makes the playground an incubator of talent; and presents the peculiarities of the game “21,” (in which three or more players play individually against each other).

Kenny Smith, the former NBA guard and current TNT analyst, recalls growing up on the courts in the New York City borough of Queens. The day he made it into a game on “the big boy court” in his neighborhood as a 15-year-old, Smith says, remains his most cherished basketball memory. (He’s a two-time NBA champion.)

Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland, the Rucker Park legend and top scorer, calls pick-up “the essence of basketball,” in the film.
“One time I played at Tompkins Square Park and there was a priest on the court, a woman who had played college ball, me, a Wall Street banker and two homeless dudes – we didn’t have enough,” Garcia says. “Where are you going to find that mix of people engaged in a physical activity? It’s not going to happen in the club where it’s members only. It’s not going to happen indoors. It’s going to happen in the park. It’s going to happen outdoors.”

Often, the filmmakers would (not reluctantly) be pulled into the games they were filming.

“We weren’t just witnesses,” says Couliau, by phone from Paris. “We were also taking part of the movement on the playgrounds. We aren’t like filmmakers trying to understand a culture. We just wanted to capture it and show it to the world.”

Often, Couliau would have to lure Garcia away from a game, reminding him that he “couldn’t be in every shot.” Sometimes, he would simply put the camera on a tripod and let it roll. The two engaged in a one-on-one battle throughout the making of the documentary.
To release Doin’ it in the Park, Garcia and Couliau have taken a do-it-yourself approach in line with their subject. Earlier in May, they released it themselves on the film’s website for $9.99 a download. They’ve booked theatrical runs themselves at theaters ,(it opens in a Harlem theater this week, and follows in other cities), and they’ve organized community screenings. Nike is sponsoring them on a world tour through August that will bring the film to many different – but also similar – international cultures of pick-up basketball.

“President Obama, LeBron James, the 65-year-old dude right here and the scrub out of junior high school behind us – they all play pick-up,” says Garcia, gesturing at the courts around him. “Everybody plays pick-up.”

Leaning back on a park bench, Garcia smiles broadly, basking in the cacophony of balls bouncing around him. One court nearby is teaming with 10 kids, none older than 9.

“It’s alive,” he says, pointing to the kids. “I can’t make this up.”

By Angela Barbuti

Jonathan Jackson recently landed another dream job. On ABC’s new series Nashville, he gets to combine two of his talents — acting and singing. “It’s a dream come true. I never thought a role like this would come along,” the thirty-one-year old said about playing country singer Avery Barkley. When we spoke, the fate of Nashville wasn’t yet known, but because of its compelling storyline and soundtrack, the show has been renewed for a second season. With five Daytime Emmy Awards for his role as Lucky on General Hospital, the film and TV veteran still makes time to perform with his band, Enation. This Indie Euro Folk Rock band comes to B.B. King’s in Times Square on June 13th, a show that Jackson promises will be an intimate experience.

Your band Enation is Indie Euro Folk Rock. How would you explain that genre to people who haven’t heard your music?
The folk aspect comes down to the approach to the lyrics and a certain amount of intimacy that we try to have in our music. And the rock part means that it gets kind of anthemic and big at times. I think Bruce Springsteen and U2 are artists that have a rock side, but also have a folk side to some of their music. We keep in that tradition — walking the line between intimacy and big, rock music.

What does your band name mean?
Enation is like a birthing, coming into existence. We liked the name because we thought it had a sense of movement and creativity. That is how we feel when we are making music.

You’re in the band with your brother. How long have you been playing together?
Richard and I have been playing music together since I was 11 or 12. A long time. When we formed Enation, that was probably eight years ago.

What do you expect the demographic to be at your B.B. King’s show?
It’s sort of a mixed group. Some people come out who are just fans of the music. Other people primarily know me from General Hospital or Nashville. I’ve been doing music long enough that most people who follow me also follow my music.

What can fans expect at your concert?
An awesome rock show that’s also going to have some more intimate music. We’re gonna play some of the songs that have been on Nashville. We like to spend time taking pictures with the fans and signing autographs. We love playing live and really rocking the house.

How did your role on Nashville come about?
Nashville was an audition I had in Los Angeles. They asked me to bring my guitar and play some songs, which was not the normal thing they usually do for an audition. It was such a great script that Callie Khouri wrote. I was very excited about the project and when I learned that T Bone Burnett was producing the music, I was even more excited. It’s been an amazing experience.

Besides the music aspect, what’s the difference between working on Nashville versus General Hospital?
Well General Hospital’s filming schedule is very different. You’re doing 20 to 30 pages of dialogue a day, but your hours are kind of short. You’re only there for five or six hours a day usually. On Nashville, you’re only doing 5 pages a day — so there’s a lot less memorizing. But you might be on set for 12 to 15 hours. So the hours are longer on Nashville, but the memorizing is more on General Hospital. They’re both kind of demanding in different ways.

You divide your time between living in L.A. and Nashville. Do people in Nashville come up to you about the show?
Yeah, it’s really amazing how the city has embraced the show. In a sense, they feel like the show is theirs because it’s representing their city. There’s a real fondness from the people here towards all of us on the show.

You were 11 when you started on General Hospital and went on to win five daytime Emmys. I read that you are open to the possibility of someday coming back to the show.
Well yeah, General Hospital is something I never close the door on cause it’s like a family to me.

What happened to Lucky?
I left the show originally in 1999 and was gone for 10 years doing films. When I came back, Lucky was a detective and had been through a lot. He was a drug addict, alcoholic, had some kids, was divorced. On soaps, everything’s very tumultuous and dramatic. I had 10 years of drama that Lucky had been through. And then, even when I was on the show this last time for a couple of years, he lost his son; his fiancé died. He’s such a fun character to play. Now, he’s just out of the country.

You met your wife on the set of General Hospital.
She was just coming onto the show when I was leaving, so we never really worked together. We didn’t really become friends until later, away from the show.

You have three children. Do they follow in your artistic footsteps?
Yeah, very much so. My son is nine and is always playing the piano and loves composition music. He’s being creating music like movie scores and has written a couple of books as well. My daughter — she’s seven — is a really awesome singer and has already written her own songs. I’ve written a couple of songs with her, so we’re probably going to perform around here sometime soon for fun.
You even wrote a book of poetry.
That one is called Book of Solace and Madness. It’s a series of books, that was the first part. I’ve already written the second part; I just don’t know when we’ll release it. I’ve also written an epic poem and my first novel.

Would you ever go back to doing films?
Yeah, films have always been something I’ve done over the years. Even was I was on General Hospital the first time, I did Camp Nowhere and The Deep End of the Ocean. I love film work and I’m sure they’ll be more opportunities to do some films as time goes on.

What are your future plans?
We’re waiting to see whether or not Nashville gets picked up for a second season. That will determine the near future. I’m working on some films as well; my brother and I write screenplays together. I’ll keep doing music with the band and maybe get some of the other book projects out there.

For tickets to Enation’s show at B.B. King’s, visit www.bbkingblues.com

By Jake Pearson

In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

In all the photos, taken by New York City artist Arne Svenson from his second-floor apartment, the faces are obscured or not shown. The people are unidentifiable.

But the residents of a glass-walled luxury residential building across the street had no idea they were being photographed and never consented to being subjects for the works of art that are now on display – and for sale – in a Chelsea gallery.

“I don’t feel it’s a violation in a legal sense, but in a New York, personal sense is there was a line crossed,” said Michelle Sylvester, who lives in the Zinc Building at 475 Greenwich Street in Tribeca, which stands out with its floor-to-ceiling windows in a neighborhood of cobblestone streets and old, brick warehouse buildings.

Svenson’s apartment is directly across the street, just to the south, giving him a clear view of his neighbors by simply looking out his window.

“I think there’s an understanding that when you live here with glass windows, there will be straying eyes but it feels different with someone who has a camera,” Sylvester said.

Svenson’s show, “The Neighbors,” opened last Saturday at the Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea, where about a dozen large prints are on sale for up to $7,500. His exhibit is drawing a lot of attention, not for the quality of the work, but for the manner in which it was made.

Svenson did not respond to a request for comment, but says in material accompanying the exhibit that the idea for it came when he inherited a telephoto lens from a friend, a birdwatcher who recently died.

“For my subjects there is no question of privacy; they are performing behind a transparent scrim on a stage of their own creation with the curtain raised high,” Svenson says in the gallery notes. “The Neighbors don’t know they are being photographed; I carefully shoot from the shadows of my home into theirs.”

That explanation has done little to satisfy some residents of the Zinc Building, where a penthouse was once listed at nearly $6 million. In an email circulating among the building’s owners and renters this week, a resident whose apartment was depicted in Svenson’s photographs suggested legal recourse against the artist.

“I am not an expert in this area of the law, but I do think we may have some rights and the ability to stop this,” the email reads. “I love art, but find this to be an outrageous invasion of privacy.”

Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel said that according to New York civil rights law, there may be a way for Svenson’s subjects to challenge him in court but the case will depend entirely on context.

“The question for the person who’s suing is, if you’re not identifiable, then where’s the loss of privacy?” he said. “These issues are a sign of the times. How do you balance the right of privacy vis-à-vis the right of artistic expression?”

Linda Darcia, an exchange student from Colombia living with a family on the sixth floor facing Svenson’s studio, said she had no idea whether or not she was depicted in any of the pieces but she was anxious to go to the gallery and find out.

“I’m not really upset about it because that’s his job,” she said. “But maybe he should have asked before the gallery opens.
Everybody’s talking about it.”

By Helaina Hovitz

Lower East Side resident Connie Moscarella, 92, was afraid to fall asleep during Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately, she was with her home health aide of nearly seven years, Vietta Horton, 61, who knew that her patient was afraid of the dark. Horton lit a candle and sat by Connie’s side every night that week, and the two of them weathered the storm and its dark aftermath together.

Vietta Horton and Joseph Moscarella at the ceremony.

Moscarella, who has Parkinson’s and is wheelchair-bound, lives on the 11th floor of a high rise building on the Lower East Side at 455 FDR Drive, and said she was not afraid of the storm as long as Vietta was with her.

Vietta reported for work on the Sunday before the storm just like she did every morning and stayed for six days, going without electricity, water or much contact with the outside world. Three times a day, Vietta walked up and down 11 flights of stairs carrying buckets of water for drinking, bathing and flushing.

Moscarella’s nephew, Joseph, lived nearby, but just had surgery the day before.

“I had to walk down 15 flights and over to my aunt’s building, where I found Vietta downstairs,” he said. “She told me not to worry, that she’d take care of my aunt. It’s a blessing to know that your relative’s in good hands.”

Fedcap Home Health Aide and 2013 Amalia Betanzos Distinguished Service Award recipient Vietta Horton, left, poses with Fedcap President and CEO Christine McMahon, at Fedcap’s 2nd annual Spring Cocktail Party on May 14 at Lincoln Center.

Vietta had no contact with her own family during this time, but they were all by her side on Tuesday, May 14 at Fedcap’s Annual Spring Cocktail Party at The Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (70 Lincoln Center Plaza), where she was being honored for her work with the Amalia Betanzos Distinguished Service Award.

Rather than make an acceptance speech herself, Horton brought twenty of her colleagues on stage with her to accept the award.
The humble home health aide of 20 years insists she was just doing her duty, saying, “of course” she wouldn’t have left her patient. But the heroism isn’t strictly in her actions that week — it’s in her daily job description. As all good home health aides know, a patient’s needs must come before their own, even on Mother’s Day, Christmas, and Thanksgiving.
“This kind of work is going on by the thousands every single day,” said Fedcap President and CEO Christine McMahon, adding that Horton is routinely assigned more difficult cases because of her caring and good natured ways.
This was news to Horton.
“I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess I do always work with difficult patients,” said Horton. “I suppose they’ve been cases that no one else wanted to deal with. Some might say [Moscarella] is difficult, but she’s not difficult to me.”
Horton’s younger sister, Coleta, knew Vietta would get through the storm okay. “She raised me and six other sisters when our mother died. She was only 16 then. I knew she’d be able to handle it,” she said.
Fedcap tries to accommodate all seniors, whether or not they are insured.
“Once you’ve turned frail, there’s no bell that goes off to alert your
community that you need help,” said McMahon. “In the absence of some emergency situation, frail elders
are often isolated and silent. Communities who could help them are unaware
of their plight as they grow increasingly weak and vulnerable. Many elderly people have no children.”
Horton’s is just one among hundreds of stories of selflessness that Fedcap home health aides, and health aids citywide and nationwide, live every day.

By Adam Janos

Jewish Home Lifecare and Himan Brown Charitable Trust hosted a Health Policy Symposium at the Alexandria Center on East 29th Street earlier this month to address growing long-term health care needs that stand to confront the baby boomer generation of America, (and New York City) in the decade ahead. Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former special advisor to the White House, the symposium focused on the massive twin undertaking of both caring for the enormous population the boomers represent while also mitigating an employment crisis that has seen the health care workforce shrink at a time of peak need.

A 3D-model of the Green House design for eldercare.

Emanuel focused on the various anchors dragging the health care budget down, and addressed balancing the needs of the industry to both keep quality at a premium and spend responsibly so as to keep services within the realm of affordability for the cash-strapped state governments and ordinary Americans who face an increasingly challenging marketplace that continues to price more and more people out. For Emmanuel, tertiary out-of-hospital care is a crucial part of that formula, as is psychosocial counseling, and better preparedness by doctors to provide end of life care to the aging populace.

Panelist Jane Rowe, (Senior Advisor for Program Development, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), kept the lion’s share of her comments on finding “better models for people to age with grace and dignity.” Lowe touted the “village model,” in which a pool of resources are available to people as they age, and mentioned specifically the Green House Project as the vanguard in such work.

The Green House Project aims to provide residential care for geriatrics that provides the support of a nursing home while still allowing its residents the autonomy, warmth, and respect of a traditional house or apartment.

The project, which started in Tupelo, Mississippi, aims to de-institutionalize residential elderly care. They pay staff higher wages and, as a result report lower turnover rate. They also report more visitors, (which they credit to a brighter atmosphere that encourages family to return), less depression in their residents, and a lower rate of hospitalization. Currently, there are 150 such homes in 26 states, and – unlike traditional nursing homes – the project is available for those on Medicaid.

Jewish Home Lifecare has recently been approved by the Department of Health to build the Living Center of Manhattan at West 97th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, in which Green House residences would become available at a city scale. 10-12 residents would live in each home, which would represent half a floor in the building. Each resident would have their own private bedroom and bathroom, with a shared central dining and recreational area. With eleven floors and two “homes” per floor, the Living Center will be the first of the Green House model in New York City. Building is set to begin in 2014, and the institution hopes to complete plans 32 months thereafter.

A new study commissioned by the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages shows that over the past seven years, a minimum of 529 carriage horses have fallen off the rolls of the NYC Department of Health, the agency charged with oversight of these animals.

“While we know that some died and a few were rescued, the vast majority have simply disappeared,” said to Elizabeth Forel, president of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. “Where did they go?”

A carriage horse in Central Park.

“Some 200 horses are registered with the Department of Health annually,” Forel said, adding that “for 529 to have no accountability is deeply disturbing. Did they die of neglect, abuse or just old age? Were they sent to auction and sold? Or did they get a good home? People care about these horses and want to know.”

The NYC Administration Code – Section 17-329 does not require the names of buyers if the horse is sold outside New York City, as most are. “It is very possible a horse could go either directly or indirectly to the auctions frequented by kill buyers,” Forel said. A kill buyer is a middle man who purchases horses mostly at auction with the intent of fulfilling his contract with slaughter houses. The Equine Welfare Alliance reports that 176,223 US horses were sent to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico in 2012 where their meat was processed to be sent overseas for human consumption.

Date – date list was run by the NYC Department of Health
Total horses – horses listed per Department of Health horse list as of the date indicated. New horses – horses that are on the list as of this date but were not on the previous documented date. Horses removed – horses that had been listed on the previous documented date but do not appear on the new list.

Beginning in 2005, the Coalition periodically requested lists of registered horses through the Freedom of Information Law and compared them to see which were no longer registered and which were new. The numbers represented a snapshot of the date each report was run so it is possible some horses could have been on the registry and removed within that period and thus, never counted.
Not all horses are as fortunate as one named Billy. After being sold to a kill buyer, he was repurchased by the Coalition in 2010 and is now living out his golden years — renamed Bobby ll Freedom — at Equine Advocates Sanctuary in Chatham, NY.

IN 2011, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages asked Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito to sponsor a bill, Intro 670, that would require that carriage horse owners abide by certain rules when selling their horses. The owner would be required to sell or donate his horse to a private individual or sanctuary that signs an assurance the animal would not be sold and would be kept as a companion animal and not employed in another carriage business. They would not be allowed to sell their horse at auction. Complete records would be required to be sent to the Department of Health. This is quite different from what happens now and is designed to make the owners accountable to the horses they use. The press conference for the proposed legislation was canceled the night before and the bill subsequently died.

Since that time, more than 116 horses have fallen off the rolls.
The Coalition is asking for future accountability for the many horses that continue to go through the system – and asking the question what happened to all those horses who are no longer in the system. They are also asking for Intro 670 to be revived and passed into law.
A summary of the Coalition’s Excel spread sheet report above. The 21 page Coalition report and the original Department of Health horse lists are available upon request to coalition@banhdc.org

By Helaina Hovitz

Unfortunately for my mother, the dancing queen of her day, my dad is not a dancer. And, just her luck, dancing was not yet on the menu when we had brunch at Dinner on Ludlow (95 Delancey Street). The popular nightspot began serving its weekend fare last month, and they’ve been bumping music like it’s Friday night — so if you want to extend your weekend just a little while longer on Sunday, or kick it up a notch on Saturday, this is the place to go.

dinner on ludlow
95 Delancey Street (www.thedl-nyc.com) for details.
Brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
(212) 228-0909

Bordered by floor to ceiling glass windows, the space features a long bar lined with clear jars full of lemon, lime, and cucumber, as well as intimate tables and banquettes, gothic décor, and crystal chandeliers. The dark woods and ornamental metal filigree give the room a clubby feel, but it still works as a restaurant. The velvet ropes were gathered in a corner by the door — no need for them so early in the day, (unless brunch becomes as popular as the rooftop nightclub).

The music started off as light and jazzy, but kicked up around 1 p.m., and all off a sudden my mom and I felt like we were up in the club.

My mom’s only complaint was, “I have to dance when I hear this kind of music. I have to.”

But she had to fight that feeling and stay in her seat, sipping the mimosa that came with her meal.

We ate Kale Caesar Salad with Asian Pears, Cornflake Crusted French Toast with Dulce de Leche Syrup, Fried Chicken and Biscuits in a rich herb sauce, and Pancakes, still in the pan, sizzling in blueberry compote. The Chantilly (bowl of whipped cream), was served on the side so as not to cool down the hotcakes.
“I like these Parmesan Truffle Fries, even though I don’t really like Parmesan Truffle Fries,” my mom said.

Chef John Keller has lived across the street from the DL for ten years, and brunch has been on his mind for a long time. He was hesitant, at first, because, “it’s a tough neighborhood during the day, but the warm weather usually lures them out.”

The doors and windows were open, so it was almost like we were eating outside.

“I think we waited for the right time,” he said, leaving us with sugary donut holes dipped in chocolate sauce and ice cream. Breeze blowing through our hair and bass bumping against the walls, we couldn’t have agreed more.

“All you need now is a midday dance floor,” I said on the way out.

Good news! They’re bringing one in. DJs Jennared and Soni will soon spin for a “brunch party” once a month, and a bi-monthly brunch event, hosted by celebrity Chef Roble, “Everyday People,” will also be happening on the rooftop. Check out (www.thedl-nyc.com) for details.
Brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

By Laura Shanahan

Let’s play a little game, you and me. I’m going to give you clues, and you guess what type of venue we’re visiting today, OK?
In the storefront window is a lineup of an artfully wrought painted plaster zebra, tiger and antelope, and an avant-garde rendering of an owl.

Inside, the walls are covered with artwork by famous local painters and photographers, as well as by some up-and-coming types. The approximately 14-foot wide space, with cherry wood and glass appointments, seems larger than you’d guess, thanks to one arched exposed-brick wall, and a high coved ceiling.

Jeffrey’s manhattan eyeland
2391 Broadway , near 88th Street, (212) 787-3232

How about if I tell you the beautifully crafted animals upfront are all wearing eyeglasses? Nope, we’re not at a quirky salon that features visually challenged wildlife – but we are at the one, the only Jeffrey’s Manhattan Eyeland, at 2391 Broadway, near 88th Street.

One section of wall space, by the way, is covered entirely by the many children who’ve been fitted with glasses here. Any place that inspires that kind of devotional offering by children whose eyesight was helped you know has got to be doing things right.
Optician and Eyeland owner Jeffrey Erber says of his 18 years of successfully operating as an indie that it’s all a matter of tailoring his services and wares to the needs of his clientele – just as a fine suit is tailored to a specific person.
When you deal with an independent, he says, “you’re dealing with people who are skilled in optics. We’re not mass marketers” – and thus can fine-tune to individual needs.

His selection, which encompasses everything from budget-friendly to high-end frames, is, he says, “eclectic” and eminently “wearable.”

Acknowledging the competition the Internet is giving traditional brick-and-mortars, Erber offers a startling value: a pair of frames plus anti-reflective lenses for $99. And the frames are an exceptionally good-looking lot. Standout: A skinny-rectangular model meant to sell for much more ($240 elsewhere) in a traditional tortoiseshell pattern in a very non-traditional purple, finely proportioned for a narrow face.

Bigger, bolder frames in a smoky tortoise-pattern plastic are packaged in a slightly higher priced deal. As dedicated followers of fashion know, this type of retro ‘50s-‘60s-look frame is, as Erber notes, “very in right now.”

At the higher end of the spectrum, there are the ever-popular Oliver Peoples frames, (approximately $300 to $400). For those who want to pull out all the stops, there are 22-karat-plated gold frames with telescoping temples, (yes, I call them handles, too, but now we know the correct word). Also very retro, Erber notes of these delicate oval frames; $950. If you’d like a thriftier version without the telescoping temples – fun to expand and contract as you wish – there is the titanium pair for $390 that comes in gold-tone or silver-tone finishes.

There are lots more high-end frames from about $500 to $1,000, by such names as Lafont, Airo, Barton Perreira and Alain Mikli partnered with Philippe Starck, (yes, the Starck of furniture design fame).

What you won’t find – because Erber knows his clientele – is look-at-me logos. Why? We say nay, that’s why.

“Until you stop hiding things, you’re hiding things, and hiding things is not healthy,” Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn told the New York Times last week. “I just want people to know you can get through stuff.”

Quinn was speaking about her past struggles with alcoholism and bulimia, but her statement on getting things out in the open could be applied to many areas of life. We all need to stop hiding things. Only then can they possibly be overcome. Unlike Quinn, I believe A.A. should not be so anonymous, and stories of intervention, which First Lady Betty Ford so blessedly brought out of the closet, should also really “get out there.”

Instead of the photos and stories of those who commit terrible crimes, we should see more photos and stories of their innocent victims and those who mourn them, and tell about life-changing injuries inflicted, for example, by the ruthless killers at the Boston marathon. Those victims’ stories are needed – so we can help, but also as a deterrent to criminal deeds.

Old people in general, must stop being hidden and invisible, especially when ill or disabled, especially by customs- and views-shaping mediums. Now 84-year-old Barbara Walters is retiring from The View, which for better or worse, gets top ratings.

While the 80-plus population is the fastest growing age-group, it’s still the least represented in those influential mediums. So these often age-related problems aren’t adequately addressed or researched – and worse, don’t get the caring and empathic attention they need.

There were so many to salute in the recent City & Suburban Homes 100th birthday event, planned by indomitable civic leader, Betty Cooper Wallerstein and held at Shaaray Tefila Temple. But why had I not heard that one of the honored guests, former state senator Roy Goodman, was now confined to a wheel chair and unable to speak? In the mid 1980s, he was a tireless supporter in saving the City & Suburban Homes complex from becoming four gigantic up-scale high-rise apartment houses. Hundreds of affordable homes were saved along with a number of small businesses. Of course, it’s a city-wide problem, including now saving City & Suburban Homes York Avenue Estates.
Again, this column needs to address how few knew that this senator of 30 plus years had become disabled. And how he loved to sing in the complex’s annual Christmas Carol event, Singing is so good for our health. and to lose the ability is no minor loss. Infinitely more must “get out there” about all these commonplace major and minor losses. Senator Goodman reportedly has Parkinson’s disease. Disabled persons must become very very visible and included whenever possible.

Wallerstein also knows that many of us need to sit down at these occasions. The population is aging, and incidentally, outdoors, my cane should really be replaced with a walker. But my walk home at 8:30 p.m. that night should not have been threatened at every crossing and on the sidewalk by food delivery bikes breaking every law on the books. May 19th is the 29th birthday of my New York Times op-ed piece. “New York Bikers – Too Free-Wheeling, And a Public Menace!”

As I’ve said countless times before, I’d vote for anyone who would address this public problem once and for all.

dewingbetter@aol.com

By Valerie Gladstone

Terrence Blanchard takes big risks. Ever since his early years with drummer Art Blakeley’s legendary Jazz Messengers, the 51-year -old trumpeter has stepped out to try new things, winning five Grammy’s along the way, most recently for the heartrending song cycle A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s film When the Levees Broke. He wrote his next film score for Red Tails, the story of the Tuskegee pilots, following up with the music for the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 2012. His first opera, Champion: an Opera in Jazz, based on the story of the gay boxing champion Emile Griffith, will have its premiere at Opera Theater of St. Louis June 15-30. “I learn something new each time I start an unfamiliar project,” he says on a recent call from Chicago. “A lot of reassessing and reevaluating goes on.”

Terrance Blanchard

Blanchard credits his years with Blakeley with giving him the confidence to lead such a musically adventurous life. He follows his mentor’s example in many ways. “Art never gave us direction,” he explains, “nor do I my musicians. It helped us develop – you make better music that way. You broaden the net.” For all his high-profile projects, he still likes nothing better than jamming with his group, which he will do at the Jazz Standard May 29-June 2. During the gig, he’ll be introducing tunes from his newest album, Magnetic, due out from Blue Note Records on May 28. Written by him and his musicians, the original numbers range from bop to electronic. As a convert to Buddhism, he says, “My music reflects my spirituality and beliefs. Whatever I’m dealing with in my life comes out in the music.”

By showing a willingness to change, adapt and grow, Blanchard developed the skills to write music for all kinds of works, though none have been more different nor more challenging than an opera. “I had to write for a range of voices rather than instruments,” he says, “and consider different registers and focus on melody.” But Emile Griffith’s story grabbed him emotionally, making it easier for him to write. Griffith was enjoying a successful career as a boxer when he unintentionally killed Benny Paret in the ring, ostensibly because Paret called him a derogatory word for gay. What especially got to Blanchard was Griffith saying later in life, “I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. I love a man and to so many people this is an unforgiveable sin.” This kind of compassion and sense of humanity infuses Blanchard’s music and makes listening to him such a rich experience.

Terence Blanchard plays at Jazz Standard May 29 through June 2.