An Afternoon on Arthur Avenue: New York's Little Italy
Feb 20, 2024 4:32:44 GMT -5
Ned the Intern and Downfall like this
Post by Super Mario on Feb 20, 2024 4:32:44 GMT -5
"If you cant Adapt to Survive...It'll be Game Over the minute you press start to play."-Mario
Our Scene opens.....in one of New York's (in Particular the Bronx's)most famous places: Little Italy...Arthur Avenue and 187'th
Arthur Avenue is a street in the Belmont section of the Bronx, New York City's northernmost borough. It is the heart of the Bronx's "Little Italy". "Little Italy" generally refers to Arthur Avenue and East 187th Street. Although the historical and commercial center of Little Italy is Arthur Avenue itself, the area stretches across East 187th Street from Arthur Avenue to Prospect Avenue, and is similarly lined with delis, bakeries, cafes and various Italian merchants. Unlike the Little Italy neighborhood in Manhattan, which has become commercialized as a major tourist destination, the Bronx's Little Italy is considered The real Little Italy due to its Italian immigrant heritage which dates back to the 1950s. Arthur Avenue and Morris Park are viewed as the Bronx's primary Italian American communities. Other Italian American communities in the Bronx are the middle and upper class neighborhoods of Schuylerville and Country Club. The avenue itself is named for former U.S. president Chester A. Arthur.
New Yorkers know that while Manhattan's Little Italy has all but vanished, the city still has a thriving center for all things Italian-American in the Bronx's Arthur Avenue. And now the thoroughfare, located in the central Bronx neighborhood of Belmont, has been designated one of the "Great Streets of America,"
In addition to its sense of cultural authenticity Arthur Avenue is remarkable for its relative stability in a city where even an 80-year-old institution like the Carnegie Deli isn't safe. Many of the street's businesses have been operated by the same families for decades, like the Madonia Bakery, currently run by the third generation of its owners; the Arthur Avenue retail market was opened in 1940 by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
Famous Italian-Americans, including author Don DeLillo and actors like Anne Bancroft and Joe Pesci, grew up there; Belmont native Chazz Palmintieri wrote A Bronx Tale based on his experiences in the neighborhood.
Generations of Italian families have given the area a special small-town character unique for an urban setting, at the same time establishing traditions that permeate the neighborhood like the sweet smell of sausage and peppers. Among the notables born and raised here are actor Chazz Palminteri, author Don DiLillo and rock star Dion DiMucci, whose group, Dion and the Belmonts, is named after a local street (Belmont Avenue). Joe Pesci began his acting career after being discovered by Robert DeNiro at a local neighborhood restaurant, where Pesci worked as the maitre’d.
Today the tradition continues with grandchildren and great-grandchildren remaining on Arthur Avenue, or returning here, to own and manage business begun by their immigrant ancestors. “Nearly every shop on Arthur Avenue is already some sort of institution,” as one writer put it. The vast array of markets, butchers, pasta and pastry shops is supported not only by long-time area residents but also their relatives and children from far and wide, who regularly return for the tastes and memories.
Being Italian this is a true homecoming for the red wearing plumber as we have been following him all day as people from all over knowing who he is stop him talk and he banters with them in his native Italian tongue and takes in his history and also the sights and smells and tales part in the traditions.
Today has been an eventful day full of all kinds of things that remind one of what home is really like and why be it ever so humble there is no place like it.
It's good to be home!
We follow our red hero home to his Warehouse Hideout the newly converted Terminal Warehouse on the Hudson River where he bids us sit down in front of him at the table as we enjoy a traditional Authentic Italian Spaghetti Dinner with Meatballs.
We eat in quiet solitude and silence as we look each other in the eyes and it becomes clear his intensity and seriousness is at a fever pitch as afterward he clears our plates and his and sits with us.
"Gentlemen, what you have been bearing witness to is a taste of what home to me is....
It's the people, the traditions, the food, the authenticity, the culture and everything in between and then some.
It's things that mean more than anything else in this entire world even more than getting in the ring to fight at times
Yeah , I said it, I MEANT IT!
There's been times here where victories have changed my life in unimaginable ways and losses I've suffered have devastated me and have hurt me to where I don't wanna compete anymore but then I remembered why I became a wrestler to begin with and then It brings me back from the depths of the depression that the loss put me in."
"The reason I became a wrestler is not JUST for the gold which is a commonplace reason for anybody to win and want to get in the ring and fight they tell you you don't got no business in the ring if being world champion isn't ultimately why you're here to which I call bullshit and throw the red challenge flag on that piece of shit statement cause there's more to it than that and I'll fight anyone who tells me anything different and calls me a liar!"
"The reason I did join is because of my fans the people who love me, who hate me, who love to hate me, and who hate to love me. No one person among them folks is more important or less important than the other".
"I also do it for family".
"I may be named after, look, and even sound like the Video Game Legend to some but that doesn't matter to me those that believe me to be real know that I am 100% F.B.I which stands for Full Blooded Italian so you don't get it mixed up!"
"As an Italian I am a family man and a community man and a tradition man who goes in to a battle and on to a battlefield a proud warrior laying it all out on the line and with no regrets and who shows zero mercy to my opponents no matter who you are!"
"With a lot on the line I go into this fight in the same way I did with my opponent in the X-treme title match I had won in what was for years the last match up until now. This was my greatest match to record and showed the people of the world just what I am about and why I tell you that If you can't adapt and survive when the game becomes more than a game and starts getting real and starts separating the REAL men from the boys then it will be game over for you the minute you press start to play."
Our Scene opens.....in one of New York's (in Particular the Bronx's)most famous places: Little Italy...Arthur Avenue and 187'th
Arthur Avenue is a street in the Belmont section of the Bronx, New York City's northernmost borough. It is the heart of the Bronx's "Little Italy". "Little Italy" generally refers to Arthur Avenue and East 187th Street. Although the historical and commercial center of Little Italy is Arthur Avenue itself, the area stretches across East 187th Street from Arthur Avenue to Prospect Avenue, and is similarly lined with delis, bakeries, cafes and various Italian merchants. Unlike the Little Italy neighborhood in Manhattan, which has become commercialized as a major tourist destination, the Bronx's Little Italy is considered The real Little Italy due to its Italian immigrant heritage which dates back to the 1950s. Arthur Avenue and Morris Park are viewed as the Bronx's primary Italian American communities. Other Italian American communities in the Bronx are the middle and upper class neighborhoods of Schuylerville and Country Club. The avenue itself is named for former U.S. president Chester A. Arthur.
New Yorkers know that while Manhattan's Little Italy has all but vanished, the city still has a thriving center for all things Italian-American in the Bronx's Arthur Avenue. And now the thoroughfare, located in the central Bronx neighborhood of Belmont, has been designated one of the "Great Streets of America,"
In addition to its sense of cultural authenticity Arthur Avenue is remarkable for its relative stability in a city where even an 80-year-old institution like the Carnegie Deli isn't safe. Many of the street's businesses have been operated by the same families for decades, like the Madonia Bakery, currently run by the third generation of its owners; the Arthur Avenue retail market was opened in 1940 by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
Famous Italian-Americans, including author Don DeLillo and actors like Anne Bancroft and Joe Pesci, grew up there; Belmont native Chazz Palmintieri wrote A Bronx Tale based on his experiences in the neighborhood.
Generations of Italian families have given the area a special small-town character unique for an urban setting, at the same time establishing traditions that permeate the neighborhood like the sweet smell of sausage and peppers. Among the notables born and raised here are actor Chazz Palminteri, author Don DiLillo and rock star Dion DiMucci, whose group, Dion and the Belmonts, is named after a local street (Belmont Avenue). Joe Pesci began his acting career after being discovered by Robert DeNiro at a local neighborhood restaurant, where Pesci worked as the maitre’d.
Today the tradition continues with grandchildren and great-grandchildren remaining on Arthur Avenue, or returning here, to own and manage business begun by their immigrant ancestors. “Nearly every shop on Arthur Avenue is already some sort of institution,” as one writer put it. The vast array of markets, butchers, pasta and pastry shops is supported not only by long-time area residents but also their relatives and children from far and wide, who regularly return for the tastes and memories.
Being Italian this is a true homecoming for the red wearing plumber as we have been following him all day as people from all over knowing who he is stop him talk and he banters with them in his native Italian tongue and takes in his history and also the sights and smells and tales part in the traditions.
Today has been an eventful day full of all kinds of things that remind one of what home is really like and why be it ever so humble there is no place like it.
It's good to be home!
We follow our red hero home to his Warehouse Hideout the newly converted Terminal Warehouse on the Hudson River where he bids us sit down in front of him at the table as we enjoy a traditional Authentic Italian Spaghetti Dinner with Meatballs.
We eat in quiet solitude and silence as we look each other in the eyes and it becomes clear his intensity and seriousness is at a fever pitch as afterward he clears our plates and his and sits with us.
"Gentlemen, what you have been bearing witness to is a taste of what home to me is....
It's the people, the traditions, the food, the authenticity, the culture and everything in between and then some.
It's things that mean more than anything else in this entire world even more than getting in the ring to fight at times
Yeah , I said it, I MEANT IT!
There's been times here where victories have changed my life in unimaginable ways and losses I've suffered have devastated me and have hurt me to where I don't wanna compete anymore but then I remembered why I became a wrestler to begin with and then It brings me back from the depths of the depression that the loss put me in."
"The reason I became a wrestler is not JUST for the gold which is a commonplace reason for anybody to win and want to get in the ring and fight they tell you you don't got no business in the ring if being world champion isn't ultimately why you're here to which I call bullshit and throw the red challenge flag on that piece of shit statement cause there's more to it than that and I'll fight anyone who tells me anything different and calls me a liar!"
"The reason I did join is because of my fans the people who love me, who hate me, who love to hate me, and who hate to love me. No one person among them folks is more important or less important than the other".
"I also do it for family".
"I may be named after, look, and even sound like the Video Game Legend to some but that doesn't matter to me those that believe me to be real know that I am 100% F.B.I which stands for Full Blooded Italian so you don't get it mixed up!"
"As an Italian I am a family man and a community man and a tradition man who goes in to a battle and on to a battlefield a proud warrior laying it all out on the line and with no regrets and who shows zero mercy to my opponents no matter who you are!"
"With a lot on the line I go into this fight in the same way I did with my opponent in the X-treme title match I had won in what was for years the last match up until now. This was my greatest match to record and showed the people of the world just what I am about and why I tell you that If you can't adapt and survive when the game becomes more than a game and starts getting real and starts separating the REAL men from the boys then it will be game over for you the minute you press start to play."
I am a man Who has Conquered Kingdoms and Galaxies My arch Nemesis is a Fire Breathing Dragon Turtle-slash-Dinosaur Monster for Christ's sake! So, if you think you stand so much as a Goomba's chances under my boot of beating me you better evaluate the odds cause that shit isn't about to happen! No matter who you come to the ring as the result will be the exact same every time as if you're the walking definition of insanity trying the same thing that only goes one way again and again expecting different results and for you in this match there's only one result which will come up every time you try..1...2...3! You Lose!!!"
"So there you have it in a Nutshell boys and girls there's only one person going to sit at the top of the pile when this is over and in the record books.
The Big Red wearing, High jumping, Fireball throwing Plumber with the M on his Cap who's been doing this since 1985 and whose name is well known all over by everyone all over the world which makes me more of a TRUE world warrior than any of those street fighter bozos any day and when I do win...then whichever Champion I face next ....you want me so bad then you better have your newly won title handy because for you and all your fans calling me nothing but a joke I'll be the only one laughing when I cave in your skull and make your reign the shortest in all history thus effectively the joke...will be on you!
"So there you have it in a Nutshell boys and girls there's only one person going to sit at the top of the pile when this is over and in the record books.
The Big Red wearing, High jumping, Fireball throwing Plumber with the M on his Cap who's been doing this since 1985 and whose name is well known all over by everyone all over the world which makes me more of a TRUE world warrior than any of those street fighter bozos any day and when I do win...then whichever Champion I face next ....you want me so bad then you better have your newly won title handy because for you and all your fans calling me nothing but a joke I'll be the only one laughing when I cave in your skull and make your reign the shortest in all history thus effectively the joke...will be on you!
GAME OVER!"
The scene ends as we depart in the traditional old world Italian Mafioso style with a kiss on each cheek as a Mafioso would do in reverence to the Godfather as he brings down the grate on his Warehouse door.
The scene ends as we depart in the traditional old world Italian Mafioso style with a kiss on each cheek as a Mafioso would do in reverence to the Godfather as he brings down the grate on his Warehouse door.