Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowing through the caverns of my mind. Oh for the good ole days when the living was easy.
Helping to make life easy are all of the outdoor eateries, where you can run into old friends such as Vernon Manley, strolling along the avenue, or the Nelsons, as in Stanley and Marsha, dining at their favorite spot, or take delight in seeing others taking in the scene. Some of my menu favorites this summer have been the seasonal vegetables and plantain served at Corner Social, or happy hour at Tia Luca complimented with a house salad, chips and salsa, and the perennial favorite Babbalucci, where the oven-baked pizza with mozzorella and basil is to die for.
If scouting around for some good discounts on summer fun has been your pastime, check out Travelzoo.com, where $12 tickets for the Mets games at Citifield are currently offered, good for games during the month of July and August, as well as various other offers for massage, restaurants and hotels.
A special from Livingsocial.com offers a “closing night” special of Taste On The Beach Friday, Aug. 5, Beachfront at National Boulevard located in Long Beach, N.Y. The $133 value offered for $69 is truly an event worth considering. Taste On The Beach gets underway with ticket holders arriving at 6 p.m. and walking into the unique atmosphere of enjoying a wide variety of food, wine and craft beer on one of the most pristine and beautiful beaches along the Atlantic Coast. Live musical performances provide the soundtrack throughout the evening. Taste On The Beach ends at 9 p.m. as everyone will be invited into a custom built movie theater on the beach, Beach Theatre, for the Shorts OnThe Beach Film Series. Shorts On The Beach exhibits short films from around the world, featuring the best from both the studio and independent level.
What a beautiful way to spend an evening under the stars. If that doesn’t grab you, check out Groupon.com for the one or two 60-Minute Virgin-Coconut-Oil Reflexology Treatments, for $29 or $57, respectively, at Eden Spa, located in Fort Lee, N.J.
Have you heard that Beverly Hills actress Tatyana Ali, 36, married Dr. Vaughn Rasberry? That the two met on eHarmony.com approximately two years ago and are already expecting their first child together? News to me, and very happy news for the couple. She has always been a favorite actress of mine, and I hope to see more of her in the future. Rasberry, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, teaches at the University of Chicago in collaboration with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the programs in Modern Thought and Literature, African and African American Studies and American Studies. He is working on a forthcoming book, entitled, “Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination.” That’s deep.
Other celebrity news reports Bill Cosby says he is completely blind because of a degenerative eye disease called keratoconus. Really, or is it just psychosomatic. More than anything, I miss “The Cosby Show.” It presented such positive role models for our families and children. I am terribly disappointed in the television programming for preteen children, in which the storylines are not age appropriate, and the child stars are fresh and way too sassy. It is an ongoing battle in my household to constantly monitor programming or to just turn the darn thing off!
I heard it through the grapevine that our very own Flo Anthony was among the more than 300 animal lovers who attended the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation seventh annual Unconditional Love Gala, held at a private residence on Gin Lane in Southampton. All proceeds from the evening went directly to the Southampton Animal Shelter’s crucial initiatives. One such initiative in particular that will benefit is their low-cost spay/neuter mobile van granted by the ASCPA. Benefits will also help to defray costs for the continued effort to rescue innocent animals enslaved in puppy mills and the costs of daily care within the shelters. Additionally, the proceeds will also benefit the shelter’s various programs that help special needs children, as well as implementing SASF’s Playing for Life program, which is currently in more than 40 shelters throughout the United States.
The New York Civil Liberties Union held its 14th annual “Broadway Stands Up for Freedom,” at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, where dozens of Broadway stars and performers honored the NYCLU’s work before a packed house. According to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, “Thanks to their talents and their generosity, the show not only raised artistic spirits, but it also raised awareness and money for the NYCLU’s crucial work.” The program honored Nelson Mandela’s legacy and observed International Nelson Mandela Day by highlighting the NYCLU’s recent victories against what Mandela called “the most forbidding aspect of prison life”—solitary confinement. The show also highlighted the work performed by NYCLU regarding public defense, police reform, LGBT rights, farmworkers’ rights and immigration. The audience included notable figures from NYCLU causes, such as Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner; Dominque Sharpton from the National Action Network; Alphonso David, counsel to the Governor; and the State Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau Chief, Lourdes Rosado.
Applications for the lottery offering 10 lucky households a chance to purchase one of the new condominiums designated as affordable housing at Circa Central Park, 2040 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem have officially closed. This building, which is approved to receive a tax exemption through the 421-a Program of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, will include a uniformed lobby attendant, laundry facilities, recreation space, intercom, prewiring for a telecommunications system, individual temperature control for each condominium unit and outdoor and indoor recreation space. Somehow, affordable and condominiums sound like an oxymoron, but maybe not, as the market rate units are priced from $2.995 million for a third-floor three-bedroom to $8.744 million for a sprawling ninth-floor five-bedroom unit. Help, I can’t breath!
Until next week … kisses.