Actor/Comedian Johnathan Fernandez Of Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk Bar & Grill Performed On Colbert and Jimmy Fallon Show - See His Sketch Comedy Team Stone Cold Fox Perform Friday Nights At Upright Citizens Brigade

Don't be surprised if you see a familiar Roosevelt island face on your tv screen, Ipad, movie theater or performing at a local comedy club. You may not realize it the next time you visit Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk Bar & Grill, but the young man who is serving your food and drink, Johnathan Fernandez, has appeared in these shows.


Fernandez Commercial Reel from jthanf on Vimeo.

According to Mr. Fernandez:

I am from the Poconos, Pennsylvania and am a comedian/actor based in New York City. I performed in improv shows at Penn State and have since taken classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. I am on a house sketch team at said theatre.

I have appeared on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Nickelodeon, and in many internet videos, some of which were for funnyordie.com and comedian Michael Showalter.

I also played a lead role in the independent feature Director’s Cut which has been accepted into many film festivals, two of which are the Boston International Film Festival and The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.

I can be seen once a month in an ensemble cast with my group Stone Cold Fox at the NY UCB Theatre.

Mr. Fernandez's Sketch Team, Stone Cold Fox, appears Friday night's at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

You can make reservations here to see Mr. Fernandez and his group tonight or any other Friday night.

Roosevelt Island Junior Tennis Player DJ Smith Rings NASDAQ Opening Bell Last Week

Image From NASDAQ

Roosevelt Island parents Don & Alex Smith share these photos of their son participating in the ringing of the NASDAQ opening bell in Times Square last week adding:

Roosevelt Landing resident Donald (DJ) Smith rang the opening bell on 8/25 for NASDAQ with tennis pros Robin Soderling, Leizel Huber, David Wagner and the President and VP of the USTA Jon Vegosen and Katrina Adams on USTA Day.

DJ was representing the Harlem Jr Tennis & Education Program and is a member of their advance tournament training team.

Image From NASDAQ

More info from NASDAQ.

Young Roosevelt Island Resident, Musician and Orator Asher Elbaz Profiled in TV Report - Quite A Young Man

Roosevelt Island resident and TV reporter Kim Lengle profiles young Roosevelt Island resident, musician and orator Asher Elbaz. Below is Ms. Lengle's report from RNN TV.

You Tube Video Profiling Asher Elbaz

Jonathan Kalkin attended Mr. Elbaz's United Nations speech last month

Image of Mr. Elbaz Giving Speech at UN From Jonathan Kalkin

that was referenced at the end of the video report tweeting:

Asher Elbaz Of Roosevelt Island gives a speech about religion & peace @ United Nations

and:

Gives me hope 4 peace today after hearing these Youth Leaders speak @ United Nations

That's quite a young man.

Mr. Elbaz decision not to attend Julliard on the Jewish Sabbath reminds me a little bit of Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax's decision not to  pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it was on Yom Kippur.

Roosevelt Islander Brenda Rosen Appointed Executive Director of Common Ground - Helping To Provide Affordable Housing And Social Services To Homeless and Low Income New Yorkers

Image of Brenda Rosen From Poverty Insights

Roosevelt Islander Brenda Rosen was recently appointed Executive Director of Common Ground, an organization that provides affordable housing for low income and homeless New Yorkers.  According to this July 6 announcement from Common Ground:

Common Ground, the internationally recognized homeless housing and services organization and largest developer of supportive housing in New York State, announced today that Brenda Rosen has been appointed Executive Director.

Having served as Acting Executive Director since January 2011, Rosen will now lead Common Ground’s future efforts to identify and develop new real estate opportunities, manage its growing portfolio of housing units for formerly homeless and low income residents, coordinate and provide a complex array of support services, and expand its pioneering Street to Home outreach program in close partnership with the NYC Department of Homeless Services....

Poverty Insights profiled Ms. Rosen yesterday and reported on her difficult first childhood introduction to Roosevelt Island:

... This difficult chapter of her life began unexpectedly when she was only ten years old. Rosen’s parents had just relocated her family from the Bronx area of New York City to a new apartment on Roosevelt Island, located adjacent to Manhattan in the East River.

Returning with her older brother from an afternoon of swimming at a neighborhood pool ten days after the move, they discovered their new apartment building consumed in flames. Their family’s residence and all of its contents were destroyed in the fire.

Rosen vividly recalls going in a wet swimsuit and flip-flops to the management office, located in another building in the apartment complex, to request permission to use the telephone in order to call her parents, who were both at work.

The first of many harsh realities precipitated by homelessness kicked in immediately; the management company refused to allow Rosen and her brother to use the office telephone, cruelly telling them that policy did not permit its use by tenants. In addition, when her parents returned and requested assistance from the management company, none was provided. They were all told to seek assistance from an organization like the Red Cross.

Like so many homeless people, Rosen’s family had no living relatives available to help. It was only due to intense advocacy by a group of neighbors, all still strangers, that the management company gave the family permission to seek shelter in a vacant apartment.

Given the unfortunate timing of the fire, Rosen’s parents lost most of their important papers and had not yet acquired new insurance. With no clothes, food, furniture or bedding, they moved into a vacant apartment in the complex and slept on the bare floor.

Neighbors and work colleagues brought clothes and furnishings to the family, some of it used, some paid for with cash raised in collections taken up in their behalf.  Rosen, who described her family as “working class,” said that although her parents “…got back on their feet,” it took her family “…a couple of years to get back to a normal situation.”

Life of Service

The experience of dealing with harsh and unresponsive authorities during this crisis impacted Rosen deeply. As she stated, “People shouldn’t be treated this way.”  By contrast, receiving kind and caring supportive services from neighbors, who were at that time strangers, taught her that “Strangers will go out of their way to help strangers.”...

Read the whole Poverty Insights article on Ms. Rosen here.

More on Common Ground from this You Tube Video



and NPR report.

Congratulations to Ms. Rosen on her new appointment at Common Ground and keep up the good work.

Roosevelt Island Resident Leah Maddrie's New Play Chasing Heaven Featured In Upcoming FringeNYC Festival - Performances Start Tomorrow, August 13

Image From Chasing Heaven

NYC Arts asks the question:

What happens when a famous black female author in a slump tangles with the cantankerous ghost of the Jewish creator of a controversial 1930s "Negro folk opera" after his descendant commissions her to create a version that's more politically correct?...

The answer to that question and more can be found in playwright and Roosevelt Island resident Leah Maddrie's new play Chasing Heaven which is featured in the 15th Annual International FringeNYC Festival

Chasing Heaven will be performed for five performances only at CSV (Clemente Soto Velez) Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, between Rivington and Delancey, in the Flamboyan Theater on Saturday, August 13, 4:15 PM to 5:30 PM; Sunday, August 14, 4:00 PM to 5:15 PM; Saturday, August 20, 7:00 PM to 8:15 PM; Wednesday, August 24, 8:45 PM to 10:00 PM; Friday, August 26; 9:45 PM to 11:00 PM.

Ms. Maddrie has been an Island resident since 2003 when she moved here from the Upper West Side. She comments regarding living on Roosevelt Island:

It's great to have that beautiful waterside walkway just a few feet away from the front door of my apartment building. I moved here because it was a perfect blend of the small town ambience I grew up with in the Midwest (Flint, Michigan) and the legendary sophistication of the larger Manhattan isle. We are after all, still in Manhattan, though some don't know that!

She is an active member of the Church of the Good Shepherd, the Episcopalian congregation that worships in the historic Good Shepherd Church in the middle of the Island.

It's a wonderful group of loving, caring people. It's Episcopalian, but really, many of us come from a variety of faith backgrounds. Visitors to the church often comment on the love they feel during the worship service, or afterward at our social gathering, the coffee hour.

Here's more information on Chasing Heaven and Ms Maddrie.

More information on purchasing tickets and directions to Chasing Heaven available here.

Break a leg.

Roosevelt Island Southpoint Park Grand Opening August 2, Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Starts At 9 AM and All Are Invited - Latest Pictures From FDR Memorial Boondoggle Too

Image of Southpoint Park Rendering From RIOC Record (Page 12)

Received the following message from the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):

On Tuesday, August 2, 2011, ALL Roosevelt Islanders are welcome to join the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation in the highly anticipated GRAND OPENING of Southpoint Park. The ribbon cutting ceremony will commence at 9:00 AM. There will be Red Bus service available to the park. We hope you join us for this memorable occasion and become Southpoint Park’s first guests.

The entrance to this new 7 acre East River waterfront park is a few feet south of the Goldwater Hospital campus and extends to the Renwick Ruins Smallpox Hospital. Soon the Ghost Hunters may return to get up close and personal with the Ruins again in search of Roosevelt Island spirits.

Wild Gardens Green Rooms had been the previous name for this project but it is now being called just Southpoint Park. Here's what Southpoint Park looked like last week from outside the construction fencing.

You Tube Video of Southpoint Park Behind Construction Fencing

Looking forward to having this portion of Southpoint Park open again.

The rest of the area of Southpoint Park south of the Renwick Ruins Smallpox Hospital is where the 3 acre Louis Kahn Memorial Boondoggle is being constructed - oops, it's official name is the FDR Four Freedoms Park Memorial. This area is still closed and will not open for several more years.

Here's the latest picture of the recently constructed Louis Kahn Death Box (or sculpture room) at the FDR Four Freedoms Memorial on Roosevelt Island's most southern tip.

Image From FDR Four Freedoms Park

Image From FDR Four Freedoms Park

Such a pity that this monstrosity has ruined what had been the beautiful southern tip of Roosevelt Island.

Southern Tip of Roosevelt Island Southpoint Park in 2008 from Walking off the Big Apple

UPDATE 8/1 - The FDR Hope Memorial depicting:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt seated in his wheelchair at his desk greeting a young disabled girl wearing braces on her leg...

Image of FDR Hope Memorial Rendering designed by Meredith Bergmann

will be located in a part of the new Southpoint Park.

Here's a wonderful profile of Roosevelt Island resident Nancy Brown, one of the FDR Hope Memorial organizers, explaining why it is so important to have such a representation of President Roosevelt, particularly on the New York City Island named after him.

You Tube Video on Power Of One Enabled Not Disabled From mntv

For purposes of clarity, the FDR Hope Memorial depicting President Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair and the Louis Kahn designed so-called FDR Memorial are two different and separate projects. More information on the FDR Hope Memorial from previous posts.

If you wish to help or contribute to developing the FDR Hope Memorial, please visit their web site to learn more and for contact information.

UPDATE 8/2 - Here's what happened at the Grand Opening Celebration of the new Southpoint Park earlier today.

UPDATE 8/12 - Here's some more images from the Kahn/FDR Memorial Boondoggle.

Images are from FDR Four Freedoms Park

Unfortunately, it looks more like a cemetery to me than a waterfront park. What a pity that TPL's Master Plan for all of Southpoint Park, (including the area of what is now the location for the Kahn/FDR Boondoggle) was not accomplished.

A positive review of the Kahn FDR Memorial was published by Bloomberg today.

Roosevelt Island Resident and TV Reporter Kim Lengle Interviews Possible New MTA Chairperson Richard Brodsky - He's Sure Governor Cuomo Will Pick The Right Person For The Job

Roosevelt Island residents have interesting jobs. For example,  Kim Lengle is a television reporter and panelist on the Richard French Live program.  Ms. Lengle recently interviewed former Assembly Member Richard Brodsky asking him to comment on speculation that he may be replacing Jay Walder as the new Chairperson of the MTA. The speculation may have started with this Tweet from Assembly Member Micah Kellner:

With the resignation of #JayWalder, @NYGovCuomo should ask @RichardBrodsky to serve as the next chair of the #MTA. He would be amazing!

Here's the You Tube Video of Ms. Lengle's interview of Richard Brodsky.

The Richard French Live program is available on Verizon FIOS Channel 6 in New York City at 6 PM and RNN Channel 91 on Time Warner Cable, also at 6 PM

Young Woman Dreams of Living in New York City - Dream Comes True and She is Now Living on Roosevelt Island

Image from NY Times/Suzanne DeChillo

The NY Times profiled a young woman with a dream of living in New York City ever since she was a young girl. She made that dream come true and now lives on Roosevelt Island. From the NY Times:

As a teenager, Kristy Shelberg, stoked by “Seinfeld” and “Friends” and subscriptions to Vogue and Elle, plotted her escape from Creve Coeur, Mo., for New York City and a job in fashion or photography. She graduated in 2010 with a B.A. in marketing from LIM College in Midtown Manhattan, became Kristy Whitwell when she married her hometown sweetheart in July, and was hired last August as the event and party coordinator at the Scholastic Store in SoHo. Ms. Whitwell, 24, lives on Roosevelt Island with her husband, David, a classical trombonist attending the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music....

The entire article is here.

Welcome to NYC and Roosevelt Island Kristy.

U2 loves New York too.

You Tube Video of U2's New York