Luminaries of the theater gathered at The Players Club on Nov. 23 to honor one of their own, a man of the theater and a writer of distinction, the journalist Jerry Tallmer, who now writes for The Villager.

Actors and writers, including Edward Albee, Marian Seldes, Austin Pendleton, Jules Feiffer, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, and yet more friends and colleagues paid tribute to the man who was among the founders of The Village Voice and who began the Off- Broadway Obie Awards more than 50 years ago.

from 1962 to 1993 under its serial ownerships, at jobs including reporter, editor, drama critic, \ufb01 lm critic, feature writer and layout editor.

\u201cHe is the last of the newspaper romantics,\u201d said Bill Ervolino, the award-winning humor columnist for the Bergen Record who toiled with Tallmer on The Post from 1985 to 1990. \u201cIt was a thrill to work with a gentleman and a scholar who had respect for our readers and for the people we worked with,\u201d Ervolino told the gang at The Players.

guished Tony Award-winning actress. \u201cThat made me so happy, so fool- ishly happy,\u201d she added. Coincidentally, Seldes\u2019s late aunt, Dorothy Schiff, owned The Post when Tallmer worked there in the 1960s. And her father, the late cultural historian and critic Gilbert Seldes, started writing for The Voice when Tallmer was an editor there years earlier.

Stiller and Meara, in a duologue that elevated stand-up schtick to sub- lime hilarity, remembered Tallmer\u2019s early recognition when others were indifferent or hostile. Meara recalled her anguish years ago when the late

Making good on his word that he would return to vend his art on the High Line, Robert Lederman did last Sunday, only to be prompt- ly arrested again by Park Enforcement Patrol of\ufb01cers.

This time, Lederman \u2014 president of A.R.T.I.S.T. \u2014 brought along a friend and fellow painter, Jack Nesbitt, who was also arrested for selling his work in the chic

Since May, Tom Duane, the state Senate\u2019s only openly gay member, has said he had the votes to pass the marriage-equali- ty bill he sponsors. The Empire State Pride Agenda, the state\u2019s L.G.B.T. lobby, has similarly voiced con- \ufb01dence that a bipartisan majority in the 62-member Senate would vote \u201cyes.\u201d In October, Governor David Paterson, who intro- duced the legislation that has now passed the heav- ily Democratic Assembly three times, referring to the Senate\u2019s Democratic conference leader, said, \u201cSenator [John] Sampson I\u2019ve heard on occasion say that he thinks the bill can pass.\u201d

But on Dec. 2, when the vote \ufb01nally came up, it wasn\u2019t even close. By a 38-to-24 margin, with no Republicans voting \u201cyes,\u201d the New York State Senate rejected marriage equality for same-sex couples.

There will be debate, likely even rancor, in the weeks and months ahead over what went wrong, whether the bill should have come up for a vote if it were destined to fail so decisively, and what to do next.

The immediate reaction, however, was stunned bit- terness.

\u201cI really can\u2019t believe that they don\u2019t think my family is as important as theirs,\u201d

Gay-marriage bill
goes down; Votes
just weren\u2019t there

Koch hits
\u2018The Road,\u2019
p. 27

East Side theaters \u2014 House of Candles on Stanton St. and Todo Con Nada on Ludlow St., among others \u2014 not to mention founder of Show World Theater on 42nd St. and co-founder of the Fringe Festival. Anyway, when it comes to cutting-edge theater, Beall\u2019s the real deal. However, he identi\ufb01es himself by his new profession these days \u2014 pedicab driver. Yes, like everyone else, it seems, he\u2019s making his living as a bicycle taxi driver, plying New York City\u2019s streets for fares looking for an open-air ride and some sparkling conversation. \u201cIt\u2019s the last great bohemian job available,\u201d he said. But Beall\u2019s work title will soon change yet again, this time to either \u201cdriverormer\u201d or \u201cperiver\u201d \u2014 those are Beallisms for \u201cdriver/performer\u201d and \u201cperformer/driver.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m opening a theater on a pedicab,\u201d Beall told The Villager. \u201cI\u2019ll do shows that last like 20 minutes. I have all these great shows. There\u2019s a million and one ways to stage a pedicab extravaganza. I also wanted to have a theater that would be on Broadway and Off-Broadway simultaneously.\u201d Beall explained that sometimes he will be performing seated backwards, sometimes moving \u2014 the possibilities are endless. The theater company will be known as \u201c!bacideP, A Theater on Wheels\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cpedicab\u201d backwards, as if seen in a rearview mirror, he noted. Performances will begin in the spring. \u201cYou got the scoop,\u201d Beall told The Villager.

to pedicabs, we found out a little bit aboutS h a u n, a.k.a. \u201cSpidey,\u201d the East Village\u2019s famous acrobatic rickshaw man, the other weekend. We espied his vehicle sitting by the curb on St. Mark\u2019s Place, and then Spidey himself fueling up nearby on a cup of java outside Yaffa Cafe. It turns out he\u2019s from a college town/hippie enclave near Miami called Coconut Grove. It was there that he honed his superhero-like rickshaw routine in which he does aerial spins and climbs on trucks and walls, all the while racing around with gleefully screaming passengers in the back of the contraption. The Spider-Man suit-wearing running man came to New York in August, and \u2014 after testing the waters around Soho \u2014 quickly found a home in the East Village, where people dig his tricks and the police don\u2019t seem to hassle him. He was chased out of Times Square, however, where his daredevil act didn\u2019t go down so well with the police and business improvement district up there. Nothing good lasts forever, though, and the Sunshine State native said he would probably be heading back south once the weather gets cold, but would try to stick it out through December. When we spoke to him, he was wearing his Spidey suit and just a light leather jacket to keep warm. As for why he came to New York, he said his dream is to tour the world\u2019s big cities with his rickshaw. Tops on his list is Tokyo, which he noted, is \u201cthe home of the rickshaw.\u201d

on a Dutch delegation\u2019s visit to St. Mark\u2019s Church to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson\u2019s sail- ing up the Hudson River and to pay homage to Peter Stuyvesant ended on a sad note, when it reported that a tree the Dutch gave to the church had died. However, it turns out there is a happy ending after all. Felicia Mayro, director of the St. Mark\u2019s Historic Landmark Fund, said she was surprised to read that the tree was terminal, and promptly contacted the arborist who planted it. \u201cI\u2019m happy to report that he found the tips of the branches to be green, which indicates the tree is alive,\u201d Mayro stated. \u201cThe tree was planted at an unusual time in the year and some do have a difficulty adjusting to a new environ- ment, but we are hopeful that the tree will leaf out in the spring. The arborist took soil samples to check, and, of course, guarantees the tree if it does not leaf out.\u201d

\u201cOld-fashioned in every way\u201d,
this Chelsea \u201ctrip back in time\u201d
purveys \u201chearty\u201d Americana
in a \u201cWaterford-and-wood-
buring-fireplace\u201d setting; add in
\u201caccommodating\u201d staffers who
\u201cpour a great Guinness\u201d and the
\u201cwhole is definitely equal to
more than the sum of its parts.\u201d

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Cathedral High School
All Girls Marching Band
Boy Scouts Marching Band

Katie & Megan La Porta, Sopranos
Jeanai Ratcli\ufb00e, Soprano
Antoni Mendezona, Soprano
Christina Luna, Soprano