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Home Cookin'
Debby
Gabriel In
terms of career moves, Debbie Gabriel is thinking big.
That
is, acting on the big screen and cooking in a big kitchen.
Gabriel,
18, plans to start attending classes at the New York Institute of Culinary
Arts in June and said she wants to own and manage her own restaurant and
hotel. “When
I was twelve years old, I remember seeing my mom in the kitchen, cooking up
brown rice with red beans, and thinking that I want to do this one day.” Gabriel,
a resident of Jackson Heights, is enrolled in acting classes at Camera Two
Studios in Forest Hills. She
hopes to become a noted actress, and continue with the catalog modeling she
has done in the past. “When
I see a movie, I walk out saying, ‘I want to get there and do that’.” “You
gotta push yourself,” she said. For
the Birds
While the City Parks Department inaugurated a newly rebuilt Sobelsohn
Playground in Forest Park, a press release described the day’s events and
the playground’s improvements. The release stated, “...The woodpecker-like sounds of
construction have ended in Forest Park, marking the completion of Sobelsohn
Playground’s $920,000 reconstruction.
The playground was given a woodland theme, with many references to
the much-adored woodpecker...Landscape Architect Helen Ogrinz’s designs
called for the addition of steel play equipment with spinning elements and
swings, the construction of a spray shower area with water-spitting frogs,
the installation of new fencing with laser cut-outs of woodpeckers, the
creation of a curving ground pattern with woodland creatures, the
construction of a gigantic bird feeder for children...”
A Parks Department spokesman said that the bird feeder is a climbing
toy for children, and not an attempt by the city to improve kids’ diets.
With the park’s reopening, kids can enjoy the 4-foot tall toy,
that’s shaped like a bird feeder.
Sopranos
Queens Sit-Down
Fans of the HBO modern mob series “The Sopranos,” may have been disappointed with the lack of “whacks” in this week's season finale but Queens fans may be happy to know that one of the last episode’s pivotal scenes was filmed right here in the city’s best borough.
According
to published reports, Astoria Park was the backdrop of the on screen
“sit-down” between the show’s main character Tony Soprano played by
James Gandolfini and fictional New York boss Carmine Lupertazzi played by
Tony Lip. Those
who saw the fourth season’s final episode know that the deal made between
the two television mobsters put a hold on a planned hit on Carmine. The scene was reportedly shot last summer not far from Silvercup Studios where other scenes for the show are filmed, according to the studio’s website. Will
The Real Costanza …
George
Costanza, the character on the hit NBC show Seinfeld, is going back to
school—but not back to Queens College, where he attended with Jerry
Seinfeld according to the storyline of the show.
Jason
Alexander, who played the underachieving best friend of Seinfeld, landed a
job as the first George Burns Visiting Professor at the University of
Southern California, and this semester will be teaching theater to aspiring
actors and actresses. Meanwhile,
the “real George Costanza,” or rather Mike Costanza, who sued the
creators of Seinfeld last year, arguing that the show had modeled the
character of George after him, got the short end of the stick.
Costanza,
who claimed the show damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress,
doted on the similarities of the show’s character, which like him, shares
the same last name, is balding, attended Queens College, and detests
enclosed areas like parking garages. But
Costanza lost the $100 million lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court,
which ruled that the show did not use the “name, portrait, or picture”
of Costanza and that the statute of limitations in the case had run
out—given that Costanza had not filed the suit within a year of the
show’s debut in 1989. Alexander, himself, who dropped out of Boston University to pursue an acting career told The Los Angeles Times what he tells his students: “I say, ‘Look, if you are looking for my career, good luck, I can’t tell you how to get it.’ I stepped in the right puddle. Nobody thought Seinfeld would be Seinfeld.” Homeboy Klein
Chancellor
Joel Klein said he was a “homeboy” when he paid a visit in Queens
last week to speak in front of the Astoria Civic Association in Astoria.
“Stick
with me this far, give me the benefit of the doubt, I’m a homeboy,” he
said during his speech, which outlined a broad plan he wants to implement
for educational reform in New York City schools. Though
he is apparently a “homeboy,” he suggested that he might be able to
enjoy some of the highbrow luxuries, if he gets the job done. “I got
an email the other night…that was so right on. [It said] you’ve
got a hard enough job Mr. Klein. When a school is really working why don’t
you just get out of the way.’” With
laughter erupting, he continued, “Someday, if I get 1,200 schools that are
really working, then I can go to an awards ceremony...or I could play golf
like all these people do here in politics,” he said, referring to those
sitting beside him like Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr.,
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., and State Assemblyman Mike
Gianaris, all who serve the Astoria district. Klein, who lived and grew up in Queens for some time, was a product of William Bryant High School in Long Island City. Stadium
to Joisey
Yankee
great Phil Rizzuto, who grew up in Richmond Hill, was on hand in New
Jersey recently to dedicate a park named in his honor: Phil Rizzuto
Park, located in Union Township. The
10-acre park is slated to house a soccer field and handicapped accessible
playground. Said
the former Yankee shortstop, when he dug a shovel into the earth to begin
digging, “Holy Cow.”
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