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Note: Tomorrow is Halloween. Have a safe and happy Halloween! BOO!

Watching Movies Inside A Train Station

Here's an interesting bit of New York cinema history that I recently learned about via an electronic message that appeared on a curbside Link NYC kiosk: In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, there was a movie theatre inside the world-famous Grand Central Terminal.

Numerous questions came to mind upon learning this: who operated the theatre?; where in the terminal was it located?; how many people did it seat?; was it ornate?; did the train noises disturb moviegoers?; were the moviegoers mostly commuters?; etc., etc., etc. I would love to have those questions answered.

No doubt it, like other theatres, was a single-screen venue; no multiplexes back then.

Who knew that Grand Central Terminal was large enough to house a movie theatre?

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Grading Restaurant Customers

Has it ever occurred to restaurant wait staff in New York City to assign letter grades to the customers for cleanliness, courtesy, table manners (no texting while dining, for example), and tip generosity? Or give a "Grade Pending" status to those who are aware of their shortcomings and promise to do better during their next visit?

Note: The above blog post came to me in a dream.

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Note: Enjoy the autumn colors!

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The Community Within The Black Community

There's an old saying, "Dead men tell no tales." How many wonderful and intriguing stories of black gay men and lesbians have been buried with their possessors? Stories that would give us a special perspective on black life and culture overall. Stories that the black press and academia have largely given short shrift to out of prejudice and ignorance.

I have long supported Black Studies. And in the last 20 plus years, I have developed an interest in the gay and lesbian aspect of it, "the community within the [black] community," as Lloyd Williams, a  Harlem civic leader, has described it on "The Gary Byrd Experience," a weekly talk show simulcast on WBLS and WLIB, two New York radio stations.

I hope to continue doing articles, interviews, and essays concerning this community via this blog and the print media.

New Names Added To The Literary Canon

In one of the display windows of the bookstore called Book Culture, located on West 112th Street, near Broadway, in Manhattan, was this printed message situated among eleven books:

"Homer Herodotus Sophocles Plato Aristotle Demosthenes Cicero Virgil

Angelou Anzaldua Chang Hurston Morrison Revalthi Shange Silko

You've seen the new names on Butler Library [on the campus of nearby Columbia University], now check out their books!"

Among the books on display were Love: A Novel by Toni Morrison, Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko, Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston, and Even the Stars Look Lonesome by Maya Angelou.


Note: Today is National Do Something Nice Day.

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