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Models Of Queens
She Oughtta Be In Pictures
Aesha
Rockaway Beach
Not only
should she be in pictures, Aesha of Rockaway Beach really is.
A model
and actress for the past seven years, she has been in 18 movies – in many
of which she starred, co-starred, or played a supporting role.
Among her
motion picture credits are the indie-film shorts “The Money Shot” and
“Arresting Gina” – both of which were big hits at the Sundance Film
Festival and “Went To Coney Island On A Mission From God, Be Back By
Five.”
On the small screen,
Aesha has made some good first impressions.
“They
seem to cast me in the first scene and first episode” of some pretty big
shows, she said. Those firsts include appearances on “Sex and the City,”
“Third Watch” and “New York Undercover.”
This
life-long Queensite may also look familiar from her television commercial
appearances for Microsoft and Levi’s.
Aesha
told us she is ready to test her acting mettle and was just asked to join
the Manhattan theater group, the Backhouse Players which was founded by John
Mailer – son of literary giant Norman Mailer.
Aesha’s
modeling career has been as successful as her acting one – take a look at
the billboard ad she appears on at the intersection of Lafayette and Canal
Streets in downtown Manhattan.
She
described her appearance as very petite, which may be
why she is cast in younger roles.
One would
think that with Aesha’s resumé, she would prefer to live amid the hustle
and bustle of the big city, but Rockaway suits her just fine, she said.
“I grew
up on the beach,” she explained.
And when
she’s not working on a film or prepping for a photo shoot, Aesha likes to
visit Astoria.
“Telly’s
Taverna has the best Greek seafood anyplace,” Aesha said.
She’s
also been known to visit Flushing at night.
“I love
the ambience. It’s like a small Las Vegas.”
The
Son Also Rises
Does
Jesse Jackson still have it?
There was
a time back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when Jesse Jackson was the E.F.
Hutton of black politics in America. Now it seems he can’t even get his
own son, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., to listen.
Jesse Jr.
appeared on a local television program last week enthusiastically extolling
the virtues of Andrew Cuomo while his father, the scandalized Rev.,
is busy drumming up support for Cuomo opponent H. Carl McCall in a
quest to evict George Pataki from the Governor’s Mansion.
Asked
about the irony that father and son would be supporting opposing candidates
for the same race, Junior, who says Cuomo is a friend from his HUD days,
responded, “I am not my father, anymore than Andrew Cuomo is his father!”
Should
these fathers be saying “ouch!”
Will
Jesse help or hurt Carl?
Will
Junior be hurting himself by helping Andrew?
Has Jesse
fallen out of favour with Black America or is it just with his own family?
Stay
tuned.
Pronunciation
Problems
There
seems to be some vowel confusion when people try to pronounce the name of
Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside. Although the name is actually
pronounced Car-doh-zoh, people have a tendency to pronounce it Car-doh-zah
with a short “a” sound at the end instead of a long “o” sound.
This is a
common error not unlike when people pronounce other Queens high schools as
“Towns and Harris,” or “John Brown.”
The
difference at Cardozo is that the school actually helped create the
pronunciation confusion when it printed report cards and program cards for
its first five years of existence that actually spelled the name of the
school incorrectly as, “Cardoza.”
One senior
teacher at the school who wanted to stay anonymous told QConf,
“I remember that, sure. Someone goofed when the school first opened and
misspelled its name. It was on everything. Everyone was so angry; it was
humorous. Of course, they couldn’t just throw out all of that paperwork
and all of that money, so they just used the wrong stuff until it was time
to print new material. It’s a pretty funny story.”
All
Wet
An
estimated 29 miles separates College Point, located at the northeastern tip
of Queens, from the borough of Staten Island, located at the southwestern
border of New Jersey, but the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
doesn’t know which end is up.
Last
week, a DEP press release
announced an open house to tour the Tallman Island Water Pollution Control
Plant at Powells Cove, College Point, Staten Island.
Staten
Island?
Francis
Vocasek DEP assistant plant
superintendent, acknowledged that the agency was all wet. Well, he said
"in error."
Wacky
Whitestone Water
A QConfer
needed to chill out one afternoon during a heat wave and gulped down a
bottle of Glacéau vitamin water, but the kick drink turned out to be kick
in the butt by the Whitestone company’s marketing marvel.
While
claiming the power beverage is natural on the inside and plastic on the
outside, Energy Brands Inc. directions for use and warnings on the company
label clearly advises, “for the temporary relief of stress associated with
personal finances, high school reunions, computer viruses and telemarketers
calling during dinner.”
Further
warnings explain, “Continuous usage may lead to the extinction of
reclining chairs, therapists and radio stations beginning with the name
“light” or “easy.”
We
couldn’t resist learning more about the quirky company on the website
plastered on the label — drinkbetterwater.com, but came up empty. The
site, registered in July of 2000, had only a blue page with bubbly
water-type art and said, “Site Coming Soon.”
And the
long obscure message on the voice mail of the community-based quick fix
beverage company was also true to its kinky marketing strategy, suggesting
usage of menus such as, “If you are calling from a touch phone, good for
you,” or “If you want to speak to a Glacéau know-it-all press 310
now,” or “To inquire about your order, speak to our quick running, fast
dunking, order entering machine press 404 now, or “Press zero to speak
with an operator.”
We opted
for the latter and asked to speak to someone about the company. The operator
replied, “Why do you want to speak to someone about the company?”
Gulp!
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