ISRAEL G. YOUNG- MAN ABOUT NEW YORK TOWN

Izzy Young will one day make it big in this town. In fact, tomorrow is that day. Grab hold of your socks and britches for they may be blown away by the performance he'll give tomorrow at the benefit for the Museum of the City of New York. It's a lame museum. Most lame. Air, itself, has never been so still. But they have struck a vein of gold by tapping into the fertile soil of the living, breathing Folk Music scene that is still thriving. Kudos!

And they had enough sense to title their exhibit FOLK CITY which is cool with me. They can "be" Folk City all they want. Everyone knows better. They know what Folk City is and was. They don't know PORCO. The museum is fanning the flames for what's to come in 2014, which, as I said, is good for me.

But it's not about what's good for 'me.' What this exhibit will do is good for the City and good for the Folk Music world in general. The exhibit is next year, but the benefit is tomorrow.

Now I'm not supposed to say what's about to take place with Izzy's 4 minutes of fame...so all I'll say is Izzy is ALWAYS IN BACK OR IN THE CENTER.

~Porco

On Irving Place

The reason he's here

Off to Christies 20 Rock

IZZY YOUNG TERRORIZES NEW YORK...AGAIN

 Thanks to the fancy legwork of our friend David Peller, The Wizard of Iz landed safely on a couch somewhere in SOHO. An elevator detour found 4 of us standing in a car made for 3 with Ratso Sloman. Izzy makes a good house guest, I have discovered. Give him cheesecake for breakfast and chocolate for lunch. Truly, he's been eating well and reporting back to his adoring daughter.

He's here for the BIG exhibit fundraiser going on in a couple of days at the Museum of the City of New York. More on that absolutely, sure fire, can't miss happenin' good frolic later...

I'm honored to be his first host on this trip. He's here for 6 more days! What kind of trouble can we get ourselves mixed up into, I wonder....? Well, given our esteemed position (Dave and I), we've helped Izzy to be more at ease with his 4 minutes of FAME that he's been flown here to deliver. Nudge nudge here. Copy and paste there. Izzy had the right idea, large print makes it better.

Izzy will likely help close the show with his poignant prose and witty delivery. If you can get tickets to go, you should. And that's all I'm saying.

To answer your question, 'yes' those cookies are laced with hashish

A.L. should drop dead

Wrinkles are so 'now'

You left your whitefish in the ice box!

DOMINIC CHIANESE AND VINCE MARTIN - BROTHERS IN ARMS

Vince Martin, Dominic Chianese
(a Still from documentary footage)

The Cafe Reggio has been an institution on MacDougal St for decades. It's seen dozens of other clubs and shops along the strip thrive, close and re-open under aliases. The original Kettle of Fish is a Vietnamese eatery today. The Folklore Center is a clothes boutique. The Cafe Wha? Is one if the few venues still thriving just a half a block south.

The Reggio, at 119 MacDougal, is not only still open but it still sports the same decor as it has for many years. It's reminiscent of McSoreley's on 7th where oil paintings depicting the inside done in the 1920s can be used to describe how it STILL looks to this day.

The Reggio is known for being the coffee shop where musicians, actors and luminaries would meet or hang out to "kill" a little time. It's central to everywhere and yet out of the way. It was a perfect place for us to wait for the call to begin shooting the next interview for my GERDE'S FOLK CITY DOCUMENTARY IN PRODUCTION.

However, we didn't wait to shoot and the patrons of Reggio's this past rain-drenched Friday were treated to a two hour show featuring the guitar playing and sweet singing of Vince Martin and Dominic Chianese.

Vince, the one time recording partner of legend Fred Neil, was a hit entertainer for decades on these streets. I wanted to hear my friend Vince talk on camera about my grandpa Mike Porco.

Dominic, known for roles in feature films and -most notably- as family patriarch Corrado Soprano on HBO, was instantly recognized by many of the patrons who stuck around extra to listen to the show. What they may not have known was that Dom is a musician at heart. Case closed.

He spent many years emcee-ing at Folk City for Mike Porco and because of his Italian upbringing, forged a bond with the Porco name that lasts to today.

These men are family. The outpouring of love for life and song was palpable. I thought the rain would dampen our original plans to shoot video in Washington Square. Boy, was I wrong. 

Vince, Dom, Bob and Jonathan Levin

Set and crew at 130 W3rd

Familia

Satisfied Minds

A FREEWHEELIN' TIME HAD BY ALL - May 21, 2013

The Freewheelin' 50th Anniversary party was a grand show! So much fun was had by all, it can hardly be summed up and contained in one blog entry. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

(THANK YOU Jack Hirschorn and Frank Beacham for pictures)

Samoa Wilson
Ernie Vega

Randy Burns

Terre Roche

Rashad Brown

Richard Chanel

Nick Holmes

Willie Nininger

Your host

Mike Heaphy

POEZ (Paul Mills)

Judy Gorman

Rick Ilowite

A great review of the festivities here:
http://frankbeacham.com



.