I Spy: Serving up Pulp art at Abraço

Britpopsters Pulp has returned for its first stateside tour in 12 years, playing last night and tonight at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. 

In addition, Mark Webber, the band's guitarist, is releasing a personal history titled "I'm With Pulp, Are You?" (Hat & Beard Press) in November. 

Webber lived briefly on Seventh Street in the late 1990s. Yesterday, he stopped by Abraço, 81 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, to check out the artwork that Steve Keene created of Pulp's classic 1995 record Different Class. (The artwork is up for auction.) 

This might sound like Pulp fan fiction, but ... Cecilia Ghidotti, a fan who traveled from the UK to see the Brooklyn shows, came to Abraço while Webber was there. And a photo proves it  (thanks, Daniel Efram) ...

The Pulp art is expected to be up at the coffee shop through the end of the month.

Emigration

From the Poetry Window at East Village Books... featuring the work of Johnny H., an East Village poet...

The water runs off the Lower East Side 

Changing color over the age 

The elm gave up contributing 

How many years has that been 

How many years ago 

Was the blood of my birth 

The wrens when did they fly away 

At the price of a song

The city breathes dispensation 

Into the fruit of the land 

Have you flown there yet 

Did your wanting change 

Did you see the subway train 

From a seat in the tree 

You may not know 

You will not be ready for it 

A most inappropriate time 

You will alter 

The tint of the sea

Friday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

An assist from the crew at Ludlow Garage (another single-level business on the LES!) on Attorney Street...

Cum as you are

 

Local experimental art-punk group cumgirl8 released a new video this week for the track "ahhhh!hhhh! (I don't wanna go)." 

The single is on the band's 4AD debut, the 8th cumming, out on Oct. 4. 

As for the video, it's a parody of a 1990s televangelical talk show in which they answer the question, "What is a cumgirl?"

Showing some summer love for Show Brain

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Tomorrow afternoon (Sept. 14), Show Brain is presenting a free concert in Washington Square Park featuring Shilpa Ray, Shred Flintstone, and Dead Tooth — plus a special guest! 

So, it's a good time to thank Show Brain's Ozzie Silva (pictured below), drummer extraordinaire for several local bands who, like The Shadow's Chris Flash, have been bringing live music to city parks. This time-consuming endeavor includes securing sound permits, wrangling bands and schedules, and setting up sound equipment, among many other things.

We saw — and discovered — many good bands (for free!) in Tompkins Square Park this summer via Show Brain. Here's a look at a few of them, starting on Aug. 10 with Balaclava.

... and Thus Love (who put out a great pop single this summer)...

... and on Aug. 11, Pop Music Fever Dream...

... local faves Pinc Louds...

... and new faves Skorts...

... and some faces in the crowd...

On Sept. 1, we caught Genre is Death for the first time...

...also on this day, Pippy...

... and Winterwolf...

... and in the crowd...

You can follow Show Brain here. There's also a Facebook page for The Shadow's Tompkins Square Park Concert Series.

2 men indicted for fatal Tompkins Square Park shooting

Photo from July by Stacie Joy

Manhattan D.A. Alvin L. Bragg Jr. announced the indictment of Rafael Macias and Angel Sardina for the fatal shooting of 74-year-old Fermin Brito and the wounding of a 44-year-old man in Tompkins Square Park this past July. 

Both men face charges including Murder in the Second Degree, Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, Assault in the First Degree, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. 

The indictment follows an investigation into the July 12 shooting, where Macias and Sardina allegedly planned and executed the attack in a drug-related dispute. According to court documents, Sardina scouted the park around 8:25 a.m. by 9:50 a.m., and after identifying the victims, Macias pointed them out to Sardina. 

Sardina then fired multiple shots at the chess tables inside the Avenue A and Seventh Street entrance, fatally wounding Brito and seriously injuring the other man. Brito was struck in the torso and died at the hospital. The second victim, struck four times, collapsed inside Avenue A Deli and Grill between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place after attempting to flee. 

Per the D.A.'s office, the suspects fled toward Stuyvesant Town, changing their clothes to avoid detection. They were arrested on July 25. 

The two men, both 63, were arraigned in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday. 

"Our city's parks should be safe spaces for all Manhattanites, and we will hold those accountable who endanger them with gun violence and illegal conduct," Bragg said in a statement. 

This was the third shooting in Tompkins Square Park this year. This past March, there were two daytime shootings (by the same suspect who was later arrested) in the Park. In the first shooting on March 16, a bullet struck an innocent bystander, a 53-year-old tourist, in her right hip, which had to be surgically replaced. 

As for the July shooting, the chess tables remain closed behind barricades, and the NYPD has been on patrol in and around the Park — both on foot and in vehicles. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Two men shot, 1 fatally, at the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park this morning, police say

Signage, signage — everywhere signage!

We have lots of new signage to round up, starting with Cuts & Slices. The Bed-Stuy pizzeria is coming soon to 321 E. Houston St. between Attorney and Ridge. (We covered this here.)

Next! A market offering a deli counter, salad bar, and juice bar is coming to the NE corner of Delancey and Clinton.

And the name: Delancey Bites. (Hope they will be selling T-shirts for everyone who dislikes Delancey!)

Another market with a healthy bent is in the works for the NW corner of Fourth Avenue and 12th Street, a storefront that has seen several delis and food concepts come and go in recent years.

The No Fork branding is up at 131 Avenue A. The quick-serve sandwich shop in the Bronx's Little Italy plans an outpost in the former Bad Habit space between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. (We covered this here.)

And there are three Schmucks painted on the plywood on the SW corner of First Avenue and Sixth Street, where a cocktail lounge-restaurant from former bartenders at Barcelona's Two Schmucks. (We wrote about this pending arrival at this link.)

Photos 1 and 2: Stacie Joy

Photo 3: EVG

Photos 4 and 5: Steven

Soft openings: Sake Bar Asoko on the Lower East Side

Shintaro Cho and Yuri Itakura, former managers of 31-year-old East Village standby Sake Bar Decibel on Ninth Street, have opened their own place on the Lower East Side. 

Sake Bar Asoko is now in soft-open mode at 127 E. Broadway between Essex and Pike. 

Here's more about the establishment: 

Sake Bar Asoko blends Cho and Yuri’s unique perception of sake with their adolescent experiences growing up in Heisei-era Japan and their passions for fashion, music, and analog cultures. Sake Bar Asoko aims to educate and reintroduce patrons to the world of sake and initiate newfound relationships with Japanese shochu and traditional otsumami plates with a twist. 

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Image via @sakebarasoko

Thursday's parting shot

As seen outside Westside Market on Third Avenue at 12th Street... and only 3.5 months until Christmas!

Inside a historic Stuyvesant Street home for sale

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

We recently had the opportunity to tour 25 Stuyvesant St., a five-story Anglo-Italianate townhouse for sale on one of the best blocks in the East Village — and NYC. 

This corridor between Ninth Street and 10th Street features homes dating to the 1860s. The home, believed to be designed by James Renwick Jr. (the architect behind St. Patrick's Cathedral), has been on the market since the spring. 

Nina Munk, the writer and photographer, and her husband, artist Peter Soriano, and their three kids have lived in the townhome they bought and restored in 2013. The couple purchased the property from the estate of Jean Schoonover about a year after she died. 

They said it was beautiful and kooky — they loved it right away — but it also desperately needed a total renovation. 

Let's take a look inside... starting with this parlor/den...

... the living room...

Original details of the house...

This bathroom has a greenhouse built into the window...

Peter's basement studio...

So why leave this home? 

Peter's gallery is in France, so the couple has decided to move there. The two are also now empty nesters. (Their youngest is starting freshman year in college.)

Nina told us the home is "beautiful, joyful, comfortable — a wonderful combination of a traditional, historic East Village townhouse yet also a comfortable and casual place to live, relax, raise kids, and have great dinner parties." 

Why hasn’t the home been snatched up immediately? Speculation runs from the location (despite Nina's assertion that the East Village is the best neighborhood); perhaps people are looking at townhomes in other areas like the Upper East Side or Brooklyn, rising mortgage rates, and uncertainty about the election. Also, two previous buyers fell through, one at the last minute. 

Last week, the price dropped from $7.25 million to $6.75 million. 

The family hopes that an artist, author, or playwright — someone who appreciates the East Village artistic community and the historic block — will buy the home they put so much love and attention into restoring.