Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Cardew Object
Thursday, April 8, 2010
next week's assignment
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Death of a Newsstand?
The ongoing shift from print to digital is a threat to newsstands all over New York City, says Robert Bookman, senior partner at Pesetsky and Bookman and founder of the NYC Newsstand Operators Association, a group that lobbies for the protection of sidewalk newsstands.
The number of newsstands in NYC has significantly decreased since the introduction of digital media. In the 1940s, according to Bookman, there were around 1,500 newsstands. In 2004, the Sun reported a total of 291 sidewalk newsstands. Now, says Bookman, there are roughly 280 left.
“It’s hard to keep a newsstand running,” said a newsstand operator in Union Square who did not want to be named. “People aren’t buying as much. It’s getting too expensive.”
To open a newsstand, one must apply for a license through the Department of Consumer Affairs. Once approved, the Department of Transportation coordinates construction with the vendor and Cemusa, a Spanish advertising company who creates “street furniture” with prominent ad space for NYC.
A Cemusa newsstand (via)
In 2007, according to the New York Times, a street furniture bill called for Cemusa to install 330 glass and stainless steel newsstands. The sleek, futuristic newsstand not only replaced many pre-existing stands, but is also be the required structure for new operators. Only 130 have been built, according to a March 2009 report.
When the bill was adopted in 2003, the Newsstand Operators Association sued the city, claiming they were being taken over without compensation. According to the New York Times, they lost in State Supreme Court.
A Cemusa newsstand costs $27,733 to build. Between the hefty cost of construction, a yearly $2,500 to $5,000 licensing fee, and dwindling sales, it’s difficult for vendors to keep up. “In many ways, the newsstand is dying, as the numbers demonstrate,” said Bookman.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Coffee That Kicks Tail
The Grey Dog's Coffee, at 90 University Place, is an always bustling, cozy coffee spot at the heart of Greenwich Village. Icicle lights hang above brick walls adorned with paintings of dogs, and behind the counter is a giant chalk board menu with intricate calligraphy—a vast menu of breakfast foods, sandwiches, soups, salads and snacks. Dave Ethan, co-owner, feels that there is nothing New York City about his coffee shop, and sees it more as a comforting, small town place where the staff knows your name.
“You have to stay back and look at this place as a painting,” says Dave. “What you get is a Norman Rockwell painting. All day long you'll get a snap shot of small town America.”
The interior is meant to invoke a sense of home, which attracts many customers. Molly and Jonathan, friends who have been coming for years, are reminded of anything but New York City. “Whenever I am here, I feel like I'm in Colorado,” says Molly, who lives twenty blocks away. Jonathan sees more of Vermont in the vibe.
In 1996, Dave and his brother opened the original Grey Dog's Coffee at 33 Carmine Street in the West Village. "The starting point of the business was coffee but the main thing was vibe," says Dave. The coffee house's name came from the merging of the brother's two dogs. His brother's dog, Goose, was a black lab. Dave's yellow lab, Moose, looked almost white. “When you mix black and white you get grey," says Dave. “Back then all we cared about was our dogs.”
Two years ago they opened a second location. The location has a high volume of customers throughout the day, many of them students. Through the years the shop has gained a following which Dave thinks may very well be a cult. During peak hours, the line is almost out the door as patrons eagerly wait to grab a wooden table covered with images of maps that vary from New York City to San Francisco. Everything on the menu, except the bagels, is prepared in the kitchen. The place is completely self-sufficient, according to Dave.
Last fall, The Grey Dog's Coffee opened a third location in Chelsea, on 16th St. between 7th and 8th Ave. According to Dave in an interview with the Village Voice, the Chelsea location is about twice the size of the coffee shop on University Place. When asked if Grey Dog's was becoming a chain, Dave replied no. "Our lease is coming due at Carmine," says Dave. "And our shop in Chelsea was insurance in case the landlord didn't come through."
John, who grew up on 82nd St., recently moved from across the University Pl. shop and discovered it three weeks ago. The country atmosphere, service and coffee drew him in immediately. “Really good, homemade, and not corporate,” says John. “A touch of Bohemia, right?”
The University Place location has a certain uniqueness, according to John, who has always felt there is something vivacious about the Village, as the area bustles with students, artists, and restaurants. But to him, “Grey Dog just sits here, low-key,” he says. “And kicks tail.”
Photo Credit: "The Fashion Rag"
Ephron Gives advise to the next generation of writers
With a Off Broadway show entitled “Love, Loss and What I Wore” meeting with wonderful reviews, Nora Ephron, agreed to talk with me about her career and how it feels to have come this far.
Ephron grew up in Beverly Hills, California surrounded by people involved in the entertainment industry. Early on she developed the ability to determine what was and was not deemed intelligent and or humorous. Taking these early life lessons to heart, Ephron set out to become a writer and has ultimately become one of the most recognizable names in the modern literary world. Here is what she had to say.
How did you find yourself on these various career paths? Which led to the other?
1) I started out as a newspaper reporter, which led sort of inevitably
to becoming a magazine writer. Then in the late seventies, everyone
was trying to move into screenplays, so I did too. I don't think
there was anything conscious going on -- I mean, I never said, I'm
going to ease off on the journalism and ease into the movie business.
It just happened, and then it happened especially because I was
divorced with two kids and needed the money. Also it was fun to write
movies, and fresh, and I had no idea what I was doing, so that was
good. I think one reason I keep trying new things is that you sort of
get to the point where you repeat yourself, so it's nice to change
mediums and try something else.
Do you go through periods where you find your work focused more on a
particular area of interest, how do you choose if a piece should be a
book, screenplay...ect?
2) Sometimes I read something that interests me and I think, what is
this? Is it a movie? Is it a magazine piece? Is it a play? Does it
have a beginning, middle and end? Is it surprising in any way? Is it
substantial? Is it about anything, as opposed to what it's obviously
about? Etc. Or I look at something and say, this is a good story,
but where's the movie? Anyway, all those things go into a decision
about whether to work on it, or what it is. For years I had a story
in my head that I'd heard that I thought would make the great basis of
a caper movie, it was a delicious piece of plot, but I didn't know
what that movie was. And then finally I figured it out, and it was
the first movie script I wrote, which became a TV movie, which wasn't
any good but still ...
Can you describe the moment in which you realized you had made it?
3) Oh sure. My second book Crazy Salad got a great review in the New
York Times. It was a gorgeous day and I was walking down East 51st
Street and I just couldn't believe it.
What did it feel like to be a woman in a male dominated field? If an
issue, how do you manage, the "boys club" aspects of your job?
4) In which field? In journalism? I left the place where I started
(Newsweek) in part because they had a policy against promoting women,
and went to a newspaper where there were a lot of women. In the movie
business, the hardest part of it is that it's hard to get a movie made
about women. But if you can get one made, and you have a strong sense
of what it means to be a director, you don't really have problems with
the boy's club thing.
What piece of advice would you give up and coming writers - male or female?
5) Go be a journalist and learn about a bunch of things so you'll have
something to write about besides yourself/
process when it comes to writing?
And when I'm on an assignment, I write a set number of pages a day,
without fail. The minute I've written them, I stop, even if it's 9 in
the morning.
Can you imagine yourself in another line of work? If the powers that
be forced you to choose an alternate career path, what might you
choose?
7) if I had to go into the federal witness program, I could be a short-order cook.
Picture taken from: http://www.danshamptons.com/content/hamptonstyle/2008/aug_29/images/entertainment_list/nora_ephron.jpg
Depression Era Pizza Champ
Few gentlemen of leisure have the taste to appreciate the unsparkled pleasure of what your grandmother would call a bargain. Your grandmother, a person who has had the time to see hardship, has the wisdom to be satisfied by frugality just for the sake of it. That is why she and I enjoy ourselves at Two Brothers Pizza, a proliferating Manhattan pizza chain famed for its one dollar pizza slice. One dollar, no more no less, for a plain slice. Two dollars and seventy five cents for two slices and a soda. How can you beat that?! Grandma would say, “You can’t. Not in these times.” And she would be right.
Now before I go any further with my unpaid ad campaign for Two Brothers Pizza, I would like to point out the obvious (reasonable?) defects of the working man’s pizza. The slices are slightly smaller than the average New York slice. The pizza itself is nothing to scream about. It is merely good, significantly better than frozen pizza, with the crust a little on the soft side. The shops themselves are about as bare bones as you can get. Two Brothers is for the in-and-out diner; none of this sit-down chit chat business. Two Brothers is not a great place for your next business lunch, but if you were ordering for a party…
Also, and I only say this because it’s New York City, and because as Americans we live in a time where absolutely no business can be taken at face value, I accept that it’s entirely possible that Two Brothers is a front for some other kind of seediness that I’m not going to take any pains to uncover. If someone wants to pull some Woodward-and-Bernstein shit and ruin cheap pizza for everyone, then that’s their ticket. What grandma and I don’t know isn’t hurting us.
I go to the stand on ninth avenue right next to the Port Authority. Different from the three other stands I know of, this stand has a fried chicken bar with string beans and macaroni and cheese, all in the same price range of the pizza. I usually get two slices and a cherry coke before I take my bus to PA. I like to eat over the tables where you stand. Standing there, usually next to some businessman or bus driver, I like to look at all the different kinds of people that go there—high school kids, homeless guys, old ladies, and on a warm day, a Port Authority prostitute. This is when I forgive Two Brothers for everything it might appear to be—a front, a grease pit, a corporate chain.
If it’s a front, the money is for people as poor as the ones buying the pizza. If it’s a grease pit, the grease is cheap, and a soda for seventy five cents! If it’s a corporate chain, the chain is at least local to New York; no Super Bowl ad space for Two Brothers yet. The bareness of the interior becomes an absolution from heartless, bullshit eateries that charge extra for the stylized mystique of its own brand. I don’t have time or money for mystique. I am hungry. And when I am hungry, really hungry, I like to eat.
3-D Ticket Prices on the Rise, But Will Moviegoers Buy It?
Suddenly the guy who takes you on a movie date isn’t so cheap… With the success of “Avatar”, it seems that the 3-D movie gimmick is here to stay, that is, unless it just gets too expensive. In New York City a 2-D movie ticket comes at a price that is higher than most cities at $12.50 while a 3-D movie ticket costs about $17.50. Now theaters have increased 3-D ticket prices up to 26% nationwide; in New York City that will equate to about $20 per ticket.
The raised price (which varies from city to city) went into effect on the weekend of March 26th in theaters owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Regal Entertainment Group, and Cinemark Holdings Inc. The increase is a result of the entertainment industry’s desire to cash in on the 3-D craze.
However, the pricier tickets may receive a backlash. The New York Times reported 48% of the total ticket sales for the latest theater juggernaut “Clash of the Titans”(which grossed $61.4 million in its opening weekend) were 2-D screens. Compare that to the 83% of 3-D“Avatar” sales at the lower ticket price. On the other hand, Walt Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” directed by Tim Burton, recently had the best opening for a 3-D movie ever, with $116.1 million.
In any case, 3-D isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung and Panasonic already released 3-D TVs in March. Panasonic’s models sold out in one week, even with a price tag of around $3,000 for the full 3-D experience. A slew of 3-D video games are set to be released and Apple is said to be creating a head-mounted 3-D display for the iPod. The point is that those stupid, oversized glasses are going to be glued to our heads in the very near future.
Many have speculated that prices will continue to rise as long as people are willing to pay. Michele Zaffino, a 54-year-old moviegoer isn’t buying it, “That’s ridiculous. A movie would have to be really, really, really good for me to see it. That’s halfway to a Broadway show.”
2 Hospitals Examine Health-care Reform
32 million patients are being added to the already large number of people relying on insurance companies and drug companies, allowing those companies to gain even more power. Along with the monetary gain for insurance and drug companies, hospitals will see a change in the way that patients are treated.
There will be more patients, but no more doctors. New York City is planning to cut 10% of hospital staff( about 2,600 jobs), which could only add to the strain on the system. NY Presbyterian Hospital's CEO, Dr. Herbert Pardes recently spoke about the issue in a television interview. " We want to give quality care, it is an important balancing act," Said Dr. Pardes.
The cuts in hospital staff could cause a decrease in patient care. "when you have more patients, you also have to have enough doctors," Dr. Pardes Continued, " I think there are areas of medicine where there are distinct shortages." He also estimated that they were 30% short on doctors. This number needs to be increased in order to properly care for patients.
The potential issues facing New York City hospitals --too little staff, too many new patients was not a concern in a small town, where the health-care reform bill was seen as a step in the right direction. " I don't think they are adding people [patients], the hospitals will just get paid" said Kelly Rapp a staff member St. Lukes hospital in Pennsylvania.
Hospital visits that once went unpaid will now be covered by insurance. This could impact the often long waits in hospital emergency rooms. " I think that it will reduce the load in emergency rooms," She continued," the people who can't go to the doctor will go."
The effects of the health-care reform bill may vary greatly between the city and the suburbs, but nobody will know how successful it is until 2014, when the bill takes full effect.
Monday, April 5, 2010
What Would Jesus Watch?
ABOVE Actress Jessie Ward (Rebecca Shepherd) poses with the Cinema Village marquis at Godspeed's NYC debut.
At the New York premier Saturday, March 27, the movie’s ethical motives were called into question. Godspeed is a religiously disorienting thriller about a phony faith healer, Charlie Shepherd (Joseph McKelheer) whose wife and son are brutally murdered by a clergy member’s grieving son. Shepherd turns to alcohol and reckless solitude, redacting lines from his copy of The New Testament with permanent marker. As he eventually comes to know the truth, his fault in his family's demise, a duel (refreshingly no clear-cut "good guy, bad guy" set up) ensues.
A seemingly misplaced middle-aged woman asked director Rob Saitzyk why he kept “a title with such strong associations” at a Q&A session held after Saturday's screening. “I know we took a chance in attracting the wrong kind of crowd,” he shrugged in agreement, “it’s a tough film… it even questions religion, but we really could never find another name. Every character is on a journey, and every journey they take is eye-opening.”
To say that the film questions religion is quite the understatement. Though not a complete denunciation of the written word, Godspeed uproots blind faith with broad strokes. Mainly it showcases the pitfalls of humanity, but the bible and its broken believers are Saitzyk’s in.
As for one of the film's most poignant elements, it's breathtaking backdrop of Alaska, Saitzyk said it was chosen specifically to try and counteract the stereotypical image of religious zeal. He needed to avoid the evangelist culture that is so infamously Southern. "In that way it was heavily rewritten," he said, "but [Alaska] definitely became one of the characters. It really fits thematically as this esoteric, cathartic place. I really didn't like the idea of the big bombastic healer."
Though the low-budget film has gotten rave reviews at festivals and in print, Saitzyk pleaded that if New York liked what it saw and could get passed the God thing to "Please, please, spread the word. We need all of the help we can get." And when asked what his future plans were on the directing front he jokingly turned the conversation back to Godspeed saying before he's financially able to even plan "you've got to tell people about this movie!"
Brooklyn Banks are Going Down
Shot and directed by Aulistar Mark
Victor Callender - Brooklyn Banks Interview from Aulistar Mark on Vimeo.
Journalism Fun In the New York Sun
Here are some pics I took of the class adventure from Thursday - now you can just come to this blog anytime and relive these wonderful memories!
(Old) Which Restaurants Will Get a Passing Grade?
Beginning in July of 2010, New York City Restaurants may have to post a card with the grade their restaurant received during a health inspection, as per a new proposal by the Health Department. The cards will need to be placed in an easily visible location at the entrance of the restaurant.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is considering establishing the requirement as a way to “reduce restaurant-related food-borne illness.” They have an FAQ page detailing the plan and the improvements that it will have over the current system.
Although restaurant inspection results are available online, the Health Department says, “window signs are accessible to everyone” and the information becomes available on the spot.
Restaurants can be graded A, B, or C, with A being the highest (less than 14 demerit points against the health code) and C the lowest (28 or more points). The grades mirror the restaurant’s compliance with the food safety requirements of the New York City Health Code, as well as the State Sanitary Code. The grade is based solely on food safety and will not be affected by technical or administrative violations.
The Health Department states that currently “about 30% of the city’s restaurants would qualify for A grades, 40% would get Bs, and 26% would get Cs.” The goal of the program is to raise the grades of the restaurants, as patrons are less likely to visit if they have a low grade.
Establishments that receive a B or C grade are re-inspected within a month of receiving their initial grade, so as to give them a chance to improve the grade. The second inspection’s grade will have to be posted unless the restaurant wants to fight the grade in court.
Restaurants are typically inspected about twice a year. With the proposed system, the higher the grade, the fewer inspections the restaurant will receive. Failing to post the grades would result in written violations and fine
(Old) Community District 2 Profile
Community District 2 encompasses one of the largest landmark districts in the city, spanning Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy, NoHo, Hudson Square, and the West Village. The American Community Survey estimates that the district has a population of about 147,000. A whopping 73.7% of that number is white.
The district is generally made up of nonfamily households between the ages of 18 and 65. Unemployment rates are a low 3.8% as compared to a rate of 12.8% in District 6 in the Bronx. A greater portion of this community works in professional or managerial position, earning $200,000 or more (according to the ACS).
Community District 2 seems to be growing, with the birth rate rising from 745 in the year 2000 to 916 in 2006. Meanwhile, district deaths have dropped from 556 to 440 during the same years.
The district places a strong emphasis on education. There are 59 high schools, 27 middle schools, and 35 elementary schools in the district. The district has a score of 8 out of 10 according to greatschools.org, a site that rates schools based on the results of standardized test scores.
Community District 2 was one of the first “Community Planning Boards” to form in the 1960’s in an effort to fight against the destruction of historic buildings and townhouses in the village.
Currently, there are 56 members of Community Board 2 and Jo Hamilton serves as Chair.
According to the district’s statement of needs for the year 2011, District 2 holds more street fairs than any other Manhattan community board. However, the district is concerned that are “too many generic multi-block events that have no relationship to our neighborhoods, take business away from the merchants who pay rent and taxes, and generally detract from the quality of life of our residents.”
(Old) Seymour Hersh Doesn’t Want You to Limit Your Knowledge…
The Tishman Auditorium of the New School was packed Wednesday night to hear investigative journalist Seymour Hersh begin a social research conference on “Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy”. Undergraduate students and elderly folks alike sat in attendance, waiting to hear Hersh’s words of wisdom. Hersh spoke coolly and candidly, breezing through a wide variety of topics and sprinkling humor throughout as he saw fit. Hersh focused on exposing government secrets and media cover-ups. He seemed focused on the fact that the media doesn’t push hard enough to get to the real story, “If you can’t cross the line too much, you don’t get the access.”
Hersh mainly focused on the ongoing war. “Perhaps there is some method to the madness of continuing the war. Wars are not to be run operationally.” Hersh said of the war in Iraq. He continued “The military does play games with the President, as much as they can… More troops are gonna go in. Most of our operations are compromised. There’s concern that military officer assassinations are going on.”
He mentioned the existence of secret prisons, presumably tied to prisoners of war, “I’m not a charity so I’m not gonna give away where they are, but they are places you would not believe.”
Hersh spanned a variety of other topics, mentioning September 11th, “We still don’t know much about 9/11, if anybody cares.”
The casual tone that Hersh delivered these messages in seemed to dull their impact. His message seemed conflicted between informing the everyday man and scolding journalists for not delving deep enough into a story. In any case the information was eye opening and should urge the public to look beyond what airs on a typical newscast.
(Old) Profile: Frankie Turiano
Turiano lived with his mother and father until his parents got divorced when he was five years old. Turiano ended up living with his sister, and his alcoholic mother, who later remarried to a man that physically abused Turiano. Turiano moved more times than he can actually remember. He recalls living in Pearl River, New York, Issaquah, Washington, Squim, Washington, Seattle, Washington, Grand Junction Colorado, Southaven, Michigan, San Bernadino, California, Eugene, Oregon, and North Manchester, Indiana before ending up in Manhattan, New York at the age of 14. He recited the places to me as though he was reviewing a grocery list and told me he had no real ties to any of them. He readjusted the headphones that sit around his neck, and continued.
Turiano told me that his mother had surgery to remove a brain tumor. “She didn’t really change much, she just couldn’t remember anything," Turiano said. "She was still an alcoholic, so I guess she retained that part of her brain.” Turiano later discovered that his mother had been deemed “unfit” to care for him because of the surgery, but he remained in her care all the same because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Not long after Turiano’s mother had her surgery, an altercation took place between Turiano and his stepfather, who was intoxicated and threatening Turiano’s life. Turiano was ultimately arrested for assault after hitting his stepfather with a metal pipe. “He was like a 300 pound guy, and I was just reaching for something while he was choking me,” Turiano said. Turiano’s mother called the police during the fight. By the time they police had arrived, the fight had ended and Turiano’s stepfather had left. “They picked him up off the street and got his side of the story, and then arrested me before I could say much,” Turiano said. Turiano and his mother spoke after the fight, “She said she didn’t want to take care of me anymore after I got arrested,” Turiano said.
When he was 14, Turiano moved in with his father, who was living in New York City, working as a stockbroker. Turiano’s father worked for a brokerage company that was testing new trading techniques. Initially these techniques were a success, but eventually things began to slow down for the company on 34th Street. Because Turiano’s father worked on a commission basis, he felt the crunch when business slowed.
Turiano’s father was addicted to heroin and cocaine. I asked if Turiano had ever seen his father using drugs. Turiano informed me that they lived in a one-bedroom apartment, so it was hard to hide. Turiano said, “Well, you could smell it. It smelled terrible. I walked in on him while he was shooting up, or he’d come out high. Sometimes he’d fuck up and come out with the tie around his arm.”
Life went on like this for two years. Then, when Turiano turned 16, his father began to fail to pay the rent for several months and instead funneled most of his money into his drug habit. In December of 2006, Turiano’s father spent his entire paycheck on heroin in an attempt to overdose. He often got depressed around Christmas time because it marked the birth of his twin daughters, one of which died in a car accident. Turiano’s father was also in a financial bind, as he owed hundreds of thousands in back taxes and child support. “He failed at that like everything else in his life,” Turiano said, “so we were without money and then one day he was gone. He went to the hospital, checked himself in. Then I was alone.” Turiano’s father attended a rehabilitation center in Florida because it was a chance for him to escape New York City, which he had begun to hate. Furthermore, Turiano’s aunt and uncle paid for him to attend the center.
Turiano then decided to leave the apartment for two weeks, sleeping outside. “The apartment was there, but I figured Child Protective Services would start looking for me,” said Turiano “I didn’t want to be put in an orphanage or anything.” When Turiano could no longer stand the winter cold, he broke into his high school for shelter. There, he slept in the basement or the dressing room behind the auditorium. No one was in the school because it was winter break.
After they received a call from his father, Turiano’s patriarchal aunt and uncle reached Turiano on his cell phone (which had not yet been disconnected). They flew in from Seattle to New York and the four of them had a meeting with a therapist to discuss the father’s options. Turiano’s aunt and uncle gave him money, but “I didn’t like to take it because my aunt was a bitch about it. She’d complain about it once she gave it to me. My uncle did it because he’s just a great guy, but my aunt just did it to make herself feel better,” said Turiano. Turiano was not close with his father’s sister, but took a liking to her husband because he was level headed, caring, and a good listener.
Turiano then moved in with his friend, Claudio (AKA Diggy), a tall Puerto Rican man with a deep passion for skate boarding and the female body. He only lived there for about two months before being kicked out by Claudio’s mother. “She didn’t like me. I was just trying to make it, but she was very controlling. She was always yelling at me and I didn’t like it.” Until he graduated high school, Turiano lived with his friend Victor Bankhead. Bankhead and Turiano met at school, though Bankhead was a grade above Turiano. Bankhead was an aspiring model with an affinity for comic books and video games. Turiano’s aunt and uncle were paying Victor’s mother, but Turiano grew tired of his aunt, so he got a job as an usher at Shakespeare in the Park, and worked the night shift from 7pm to 2am, six days a week.
I asked Turiano why he didn’t just give up in the face of such hardships. His drive to succeed was undeniable, but almost inexplicable, even for him. Turiano seemed to be fueled by the desire not to end up like his family members, to be remembered for something greater than himself and his own tribulations. “I kept trying because everyone in my family just sucked so bad. I hate all of them so much for being such fucking losers, for being bad at everything in their whole lives. I wanted not to suck.” He snapped the rubber bands at his wrist before continuing, “I didn’t get into drugs or alcohol because, well, I saw how great the drink worked from my mom, and pops did real great things on the H, so, I figured it wasn’t what I should be doing.”
Turiano sighed when I asked him if he wished he had a family. Turiano said “I had really shitty parents and sisters and aunts and uncles and the whole nine, and then I just had none at all. I do feel like I would like family, but I don’t dwell. It’s just something I won’t have and I don’t miss it because what I had wasn’t really that great.”
Today, Turiano has received a $40,00 scholarship for college and holds down a steady job with a company that works to bring the arts into public schools. He also has his own apartment in Manhattan, New York. I asked him what it is like to have a place he can call his own. Turiano opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. He gave me a half smile and said “It’s weird… kinda surreal. I feel like at some point someone’s going to stop me and be like ‘no you can’t’ or tell me that I missed some step. Everyone in my family always made it seem so hard when it came to getting apartments and paying for bills. It’s not if you don’t waste all your money on booze and heroin. I don’t even think my life has been that hard. A lot of people have it worse.”
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