Louis Armstrong's dog ate my cracker. #art #keytocity

On the front stoop of Louis Armstrong's house is this pooch, forever guarding the hundreds of recordings he made while in his jammies. He filled about 650 reel to reel tapes, half of which are just everyday conversations around the house. He had microphones and speakers everywhere. Sometimes he'd be singing without any background (maybe he had headphones on) and sometimes he played his trumpet. One conversation was at the dining room table. His wife was serving dinner and he was being the ham.

Penguin on the loose in Queens! #keytocity

This little guy was spied on a two way street in Queens a block from City Council Member Daniel Dromm's office. He was without any ID so I wondered if he was guerilla art. We were trying to do all the locations in Queens for Key to the City. Making tortillas at Nixtamal was great. We had 3 tamales and 3 tacos afterwards. They make a killer mole sauce! Eddies Sweet Shop was pretty cool too. We had a great chocolate malted! But my favorite had to be Louis Armstrong's house. One piece of fan mail came from Israel addressed to "Lois Armstrong, Rex Jazz, NEW YORK???" and somehow it got there. I guess Lois was one of Louis's 4 wives. I might have never gone had it not been for Key to the City, because I didn't know it was right here under my nose! All in all, a great one-day borough adventure in the Key to the City.