RIP Edgar Artur Cajamarca

Sad news from Miss Lily's 7A on the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue A. Edgar Artur Cajamarca, who worked in the kitchen as a prep cook, died on March 24 due to complications from COVID-19. He was 46.

Here's more via an email from the Miss Lily's team (thank you to the readers who shared this):

We are very sad to announce the passing of our colleague and friend Edgar Artur Cajamarca...

Born in Ecuador on April 23, 1973, Edgar moved to New York in 2000. He joined Miss Lily’s in June 2016 as a delivery man at the Houston St. location before moving over to Miss Lily's 7A where he worked first as a dishwasher and then was promoted to prep chef.

A humble, hard working, much loved member of the kitchen crew, he was always a great team player. Edgar’s first love centered around his family. He was a devoted father and son. He was also an avid Barcelona FC fan and well known for his notable commitment to riding his bicycle to and from work to his home in Brooklyn, no matter what the weather.

Edgar is survived by his children Johanna, Paul and Christian, the children’s mother Maria, and his mother Maria Chunchi.

Edgar was working on building a house for his mother in Ecuador and if we could raise the $10k to fund its completion that would be incredible. Most of our team have already contributed and with only a few thousand dollars to go we are reaching out to our community to see if we can reach the goal. Every dollar donated would go directly to completing his mother's house ...

Please take care and be safe.

To date, they've nearly doubled their $10,000 fundraising goal.

Miss Lily's 7A Cafe closed for service on March 15 for the duration of the health crisis.

RIP Edd Conboy

A memorial is on the corner of 10th Street and Avenue A for Edd Conboy.

According to social media posts, Conboy, a licensed therapist and director of social services at Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia, died last Friday of a stroke. He would have been 70 on Tuesday.

The inscription on the mirror reads in part, "u are not alone, We all reflect your spirit." The mirror is on a block marked COVID-19.

Thanks to Melissa Mennillo for the photo.

RIP Nashom Wooden

According to published reports, Nashom Wooden, a legend in the drag community who lived on the Bowery, has died. Friends say that Wooden died from COVID-19. (Update: According to the Times, he was 50.)

A NYC former drag star, Nashom Wooden (who was Mona Foot), has died of covid-19. Nashom was a treasure.

— michael musto (@mikeymusto) March 23, 2020

Here's more via Paper:

Wooden's life looks like a history lesson in fabulous downtown culture. He worked as a salesboy at Charivari, the groundbreaking designer fashion chain of stores where Marc Jacobs folded t-shirts as a teen. He later also worked at Pat Field, the eponymous boutique of "Sex & the City" stylist Patricia Field. He first performed in drag at Boy Bar, a gay bar and drag spot on St. Mark's Place famed for their gorgeous Boy Bar Beauties like Miss Guy, Connie Girl, Princess Diandra and Raven O. He did an off-Broadway show, "My Pet Homo," with RuPaul. He was cast in Joel Schumacher's 1999 film, "Flawless," and co-wrote the title song with his group, The Ones. It was a worldwide dance hit.

Since 1997, he had been working as bartender, doorman and DJ at the Cock on Second Avenue.

You can read about Wooden's drag past in this interview with Michael Musto from 2017.

RIP Del Pitt Feldman

The Times published an obituary yesterday for Del Pitt Feldman, who passed away on Jan. 14 at age 90 in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Feldman, who was raised in East Flatbush, was known for "creating hand-crocheted garments."

And in 1965, she opened a boutique in the East Village on Seventh Street called Studio Del.

From the Times:

The garments — including open-weave vests, string bikinis, minidresses and capes — seemed to capture the freewheeling spirit of the neighborhood, and of the 1960s counterculture. The store’s clientele included Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick and Andy Warhol.

High-profile women like Cher and Lily Tomlin also wore her clothes, but Ms. Feldman was unimpressed by celebrity status. When Ms. Joplin walked into the store and asked to try on a small top that was hanging in the window, her daughter said, Ms. Feldman declined, telling her she was too big for its trim dimensions.

Ms. Feldman's narrow store, decorated with vintage wooden furniture found at junk shops nearby, had a homey feel. More often than not, Ms. Feldman would crochet there, sitting in a large rocking chair. Classes were held in the back; a wide array of yarn was also for sale, as were tools for knitting and crochet.

By the early 1970s, the store had become a de facto clubhouse for a group of female artists who were working in crochet, among them Dina Knapp, Sharron Hedges, Arlene Stimmel and Nicki Hitz Edson, who was also, for a few years, a store employee.

Studio Del closed in the early 1980s. Not sure of the shop's address at the moment, though I'd like to find out more about it and her work...

Updated 8:15 p.m.

Thanks to EVG regular Daniel ... she shared an article on the store from the Times in 1972 — the shop was at 19 E. Seventh St.

RIP Matthew Maher, longtime owner of McSorley's

[Matthew Maher in 2016 by Steven]

Matthew "Matty" Maher, who started as a bartender at McSorley's in 1964 and later became owner of the East Village institution on Seventh Street, died on Saturday after a short illness. He was 80.

News of his passing was reported first in his native County Kilkenny in Ireland. Per the Kilkenny People:

He had a welcome for every person from Ireland and made life easier for many people who came to the U.S. to start a new life or to earn enough to set out on their own.

It is true that when the last owner of McSorley's before Matty, Harry Kirwan from Lisdowney came home on holiday to Ireland in 1964, his car broke down and that he was picked up on the road by Mattie.

Harry promised him a job in New York. Mattie went stateside to work as a waiter and bartender at McSorley’s. In 1977, Matty bought the premises from Harry Kirwan's son.

[Photo at McSorley's yesterday by Steven]

As for the bar's ownership since opening in 1854, we turn to McSorley's historian Bill Wander, who told this to 6sqft in 2015:

Depending on how you count, there have been seven owners of McSorley’s – John, his son Bill, then Dan O’Connell who bought the place. Daniel’s daughter Dorothy inherited McSorley’s at his death. Dot’s husband Harry managed the place and was the owner for the briefest time, a few months after his wife’s passing away. Some people don’t count Harry, as the estate was still in court when he died. Their son Danny owned it then, but decided to sell it to the current owner Matthew Maher, a trusted employee since the early 1960s. But in 161 years, that ownership covers only three families.

Maher is survived by his wife Tess and daughters, Ann Marie, Teresa, Kathy, Adrienne and Maeve.

In 1994, Maher’s daughter, Teresa Maher de la Haba, became the first woman to work behind the bar. She is now the owner, and will keep McSorley's as is moving forward along with her husband, bartender (and artist) Gregory de la Haba.

As previously reported, founder John McSorley owned the building at 15 East Seventh St. near Cooper Square. Since then, every time the bar changed hands, the building went with it.

"McSorley’s will be in good hands with Teresa and her husband Gregory," said former bartender Michael Quinn, whose Feltman hot dogs are sold at the bar.


[Teresa Maher de la Haba with Mike the bartender from 2016]

RIP Kitty at the former Grassroots Tavern

[Photo by Steven]

Kitty, a regular of the former Grassroots Tavern at 20 St. Mark’s Place, recently died. Someone created a memorial in his honor outside the space ... which still sits empty after the Grassroots closed after service on New Year’s Eve 2017...


[NYE 2017 photo by Peter Brownscombe]

As noted many times before, No. 20, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832 here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (It received landmark status in 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.)

Past lives of this subterranean space — via Daytonian in Manhattan — include a theater-saloon called Paul Falk's Tivoli Garden in the 1870s... in the 1930s, the Hungarian Cafe and Restaurant resided here before becoming a temperance saloon called the Growler.

Who's next? We don't know. For nearly 18 months Bob Precious had tried to open a bar-pub here, but those plans never materialized.

Applicants for Ichibantei have been on the CB3-SLA agenda dating to November 2018 for a liquor license for a new restaurant in the former Sounds storefront upstairs. There was speculation that they were also taking the GR space. Ichibantei was once again on the January CB3-SLA agenda, but scratched.

In any event, this is a retail space to watch in the New Year.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

• 20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold

• Last call at the Grassroots Tavern

• Behold these murals uncovered behind the bar at the former Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2019...

• Tim Schellenbaum



• Steven Cannon


[Image via Facebook]

• Unkle Waltie


[Photo by Steven]

• Ron Edgecombe


[Photo via Facebook]

• Susan Leelike



• Purushottam Goyal


[Photo by Steven]

• Gigi Watson


[Photo by James Maher]

• Felicia Mahmood



• Lucien Bahaj


[Photo courtesy of Clayton Patterson]

• Jonas Mekas


[Image via Facebook]

• Joe Overstreet


[Image via legacy.com]

• Leslie Sternbergh Alexander


[Leslie Sternbergh Alexander and Adam Alexander]

• Brendan Cregan


[Image via Facebook]

• Chaim Joseph



• Brian Butterick/Hattie Hathaway


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

--

Others with ties to the neighborhood who died this past year include Robert Frank ... John Giorno ... Paul Krassner... and Robert Ogden.

RIP Ron Edgecombe

[Photo via Facebook]

Ron Edgecombe, a longtime local resident dating back to the early 1980s, died this past week. He was 61. A friend said that he had contracted pneumonia.

He worked as a stagehand at venues around the city, most recently at the PlayStation Theater in Times Square. He was also a familiar presence at the free concerts in Tompkins Square Park.

Friends are leaving remembrances on this tribute page on Facebook.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

A memorial for longtime East Village resident Susan Leelike

Susan Leelike, a longtime East Village resident and activist, died on Oct. 26. She was 81.

This Saturday afternoon, there's a memorial for her friends and family ... and any resident who wants to stop by to pay his or her respects and share a memory.

Details:

Peter Jarema Funeral Home
129 E. Seventh St. west of Avenue A
Saturday, Dec. 7
1-3 p.m.

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Susan Leelike

RIP Susan Leelike

[Susan Leelike from back in the day]

I was very sorry to hear about the sudden passing of Susan Leelike, a longtime East Village resident and activist. She was a regular reader of this site, posting under the name Blueglass. She sent me tips and observations about things happening around the neighborhood.

She was admitted into the hospital last Thursday with cardiac issues. She died on Saturday. Susan was 81.

Gojira, another EVG regular and longtime East Village resident, shared this about her friend...

Her name was Susan Leelike, and she was a city and neighborhood treasure. She was born in 1938, into a very different New York City, to parents of Russian Jewish extraction. Both of her parents were Communists, and she was a true Red Diaper baby who lived for the vast majority of her 81 years in either the West or the East Villages, the last 50 of them on our side of the island.

She co-founded GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) in 1977 with her friend Floyd Feldman, with the objectives of providing tenant advocacy and shining an early spotlight on neighborhood preservation.

Among other thing, they envisioned the transformation of an underutilized Department of Sanitation facility, in one of Mayor LaGuardia's old former city markets, as a perfect spot for a theater; without their creativity and tireless efforts, Theater for the New City would not today be calling East 10th Street and First Avenue home.

In the 1990s, Susan and her neighbors on 10th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue took on the 24/7 drug dealers that infested so many streets of the East Village back then and won; this on top of helping to gut-rehab an abandoned, fire-ravaged tenement building that she had called home since 1982.

Now a fully-functioning HDFC, it survived and thrived in no small part to her unceasing labors, and the success of her undertakings helped to turn that block into the destination hotspot that it is today.

She was a founding member of the Democratic Action Club, formed to take on and eradicate the issue of the homeless encampment in Tompkins Square Park, another city-ignored situation which turned one of the only green areas in the neighborhood into a filthy, drug-ridden haven for the homeless, while putting it off-limits to neighborhood residents.

Anyone who utilizes the park today — its playgrounds, asphalt, dog run or lawns – can thank, among many others, Susan. She tried to fight for the preservation and renovation of the now-closed-and-awaiting-demolition Essex Street Market, one of only two instances I can recall of a battle in which she was vanquished.

I called her the East Village Jane Jacobs — her love of New York and its historical significance, her knowledge of the neighborhood and its architectural and personal history, her memories of the things that used to be here that have vanished in the mists of time, were encyclopedic, and the loss of the memories she carried in her head is incalculable.

She labored in obscurity and has passed into the shadows with no fanfare save for that given to her by those of us who loved her, her sense of humor, her stubbornness, her sharp laugh, her crankiness, her belief that a city's history and the everyday people who made it mattered, and above all her fierceness in fighting for the things she believed were right, deeply.

Susan was my friend for 30 years, and on Oct. 26, I was holding her hand as she lost that second battle, surrounded by the family and friends who cherished her, and whom she loved so much in return.

Her passing has ripped another hole in the every-evolving quilt that makes up New York; while to some it may seem tiny, to those of us who knew, put up with and adored her, it is a massive, gaping one that will never be filled. There aren't many like her left today, and we have just lost one of the good ones.

RIP John Giorno

John Giorno has gone
RIP John 🖤 pic.twitter.com/aKLM9valbM

— Chris Stein (@chrissteinplays) October 12, 2019

John Giorno, the poet, performance artist and LGBTQ+ activist, died on Friday. He was 82. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Here's ARTnews:

Giorno was one of those extremely rare figures who would have had an admired career, and earned a place in the canon, even if he had only pursued one of his myriad interests. He wrote gloriously explicit poetry in the 1960s that foregrounded his homosexuality, gave frenetic performances around the world, painted bewitching text paintings, organized efforts to care for colleagues battling HIV/AIDS, and was an early convert in the United States to Tibetan Buddhism and meditation.

The central project of Giorno’s life was dramatically expanding the boundaries of poetry, and — at least equally as important for him — revolutionizing the methods by which it could be presented and distributed.

For the past 53 years, Giorno lived at 222 Bowery — aka the Bunker. (The palazzo-style structure was also the home of New York's first YMCA in 1884.) Last month, his multiple lofts in the building were featured in Architectural Digest:

American abstract painter John Opper was the first artist to set up a studio in the building, attracted to the abundance of natural light, open space, and cheap rent. He was soon followed by Mark Rothko, James Brooks, and Wynn Chamberlain. Over the following years, countless creatives and titans of the downtown scene would pass through the space; it's on the building's top floor where Andy Warhol screened one of his seminal films, "Sleep," featuring Giorno fast asleep for five hours...

In early 2018, Giorno created these posters with the line "You’re walking down 2nd Avenue, coming to St. Mark’s Place" ... which were adorned on the plywood on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place during renovations for the incoming Swiss Institute...



The line is from his "Eating the Sky" in 1978. Listen to that here.

There were plenty of tributes to Giorno on social media...

Today we lost a legend.
poet, artist, perpetual angel.
JOHN GIORNO. (1936-2019)#johngiorno #scooterlaforge pic.twitter.com/uxqPemYvS2

— Howl! Happening (@HowlHappening) October 12, 2019

It is with great sadness that we learned the passing of artist and poet #JohnGiorno. We had the honor to present his work in 2015, with the restrospective set up by his husband UGO RONDINONE : I ❤️ JOHN GIORNO
He will be missed#IloveJohnGiorno pic.twitter.com/AM2K6FheXJ

— Palais de Tokyo (@PalaisdeTokyo) October 13, 2019

1968 "Dial-a-Poem' — (+1 641-793-8122 ) — hear a live recording of a poem from Frank O'Hara, David Henderson, John Ashberry, Laurie Anderson & more. "It occurred to me that poetry was 75 years behind painting and sculpture and dance and music." #rip #JohnGiorno pic.twitter.com/UuM8fgYy5q

— Adam Nelson (@workhousepr) October 13, 2019

RIP Purushottam Goyal

[Photo by Steven]

Purushottam Goyal, who along with his wife Saroj have owned and operated Dress Shoppe II on Second Avenue these past 18 years, died on Sept. 12. He was in his early 70s.

A tribute to him is on the front door of the shop that opened here in 2001 between Fourth Street and Fifth Street.

EVG reader Marty recently shared this: "I stopped by the Dress Shoppe ... and was very sad to hear that Purushottam Goyal, its wonderful shopkeeper, died. His wife Saroj Goyal and her son are running the store, but with heavy hearts."

The Goyals, who had been married for nearly 50 years, were the subject of this feature in The New York Times in August 2016...

The owner, Purushottam Goyal, has a weakness for the past, and for nearly four decades he has filled the store with intriguing relics. Amid the tunics, scarves and batik blankets, you can find 100-year-old saris made with silver thread, wooden cowbells, old kerosene lamps and vintage radios. (At home, he has a yellow taxicab from 1929.)

Mr. Goyal was born in Delhi, India, the youngest of 18 children. Before he came to New York, he worked in his parents’ textile shop and, briefly, as a customs official. In 1978, he opened a shop on Broadway. He did not have the money for a sign, he said, so he painted over part of the old one: Smart Dress Shoppe became Dress Shoppe.

In 2001, that building was sold, and the store moved to its present location. Dress Shoppe became Dress Shoppe II.

He also shared his business philosophy: "Just relax, and if you feel something, buy it. We want only happy money."

RIP Gigi Watson

Gigi Watson, a longtime East Village resident, died on Friday. I don't have a lot of information at the moment. Her nephew shared the news via Twitter...

my aunt the psychic numerologist and original east village punker passed away last night. friday the 13th. full moon. from doing blow with rick james to trying to find joey ramone a girlfriend, she had the best stories in the worst way. i loved to make her laugh. rip gigi. ❤️

— momo (@SighPilot) September 14, 2019

James Maher interviewed her for our Out and About in the East Village feature in October 2014. It was a classic. Here it is again...

Name: Gigi Watson
Occupation: Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, Former Club Worker and Owner
Location: 3rd Street between 1st and A.
Time: 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24.

I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Ridgewood, on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, which now they can’t decide whether it’s Brooklyn or Queens. It was basically a German, Italian and Jewish neighborhood. The first thing you asked when you met another kid was what was your nationality.

There were places that we didn’t go. Bed Stuy and Red Hook, these were not places to go. In Red Hook, they used to find a dead body every single day. My train was the L, which used to be a horrible, horrible train. The L train connected with the G train, which was murder central. If someone paid me a million dollars in cash and said, ‘Here, get on the G train’, I’d say, ‘No thank you.’

My first apartment in Manhattan was a sublet on Christopher Street in the West Village. I moved in 1979. I then moved to the East Village in 1982, on 2nd Street between A and B. You had to have two or three jobs at the same time just to survive. That’s being a real New Yorker. My rent was so expensive. If I didn’t have two jobs, there would be no way I could cut that rent.

The first club I worked at was Bonds International Casino on Broadway and 45th Street. I was working behind the scenes in the office with guest lists, counting money. We had Blondie, The Clash, Blue Oyster Cult, Motley Crue, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who sucked. We had all kinds of punk rock bands. That’s where I developed a fear of crowds because the owner, John Addison, sold double the amount of tickets. We had 2,500-seat capacity and he sold 5,000 tickets per performance, and everybody showed up and was hammering on the door, ‘We want the show, we want the show.’ That place was fabulous.

[After Bonds] I worked at an after hours, where I worked the door. Cocaine was fantastic in the 1980s. That went right along with being at the front door. ‘Here, thanks a lot for letting me in,’ and I’d get a gram in my hand. That meant thank you. The stars I met — Nick Nolte, Grace Jones, Robin Williams, Paul McCartney. The list goes on and goes. Cause they would want to party late too.

I first worked in the cashier booth in Crisco [Disco], which is a famous haunt. We must have taken in at least between $8,000 and $10,000 on a Saturday night. It was a lucrative place.

After that I worked at Page 6. I was working the VIP room one month. Liza Minnelli was there snorting her brains out. Rick James comes in and puts a pile of coke on the table. All of a sudden you hear, ‘Freeze.’ So Rick James gets up, ‘Oh, I ain’t going to be arrested, I gotta get out of here, how do I get out?’ I said, ‘Mr. James there’s only one way out and that’s the way you came in.’ He walked out without a problem. It was the people that worked there that got busted because they didn’t have a liquor license.

After that I opened up my club, Trash. I was working at the time at Club 82, which was another after hours on 4th, and the manager there, John Matos said said to me, ‘Gi, why don’t you start your own club? How much do you need?’ We went shopping for furniture and I got all the stuff. I wanted neat 1960s furniture that was gaudy and cool looking. I wanted to do all the murals inside the club. I made the VIP room. I painted a big huge spider web so when you walked in, it was spinning. They would look up and sway from side to side. It was a cool place to be.

But that didn’t last very long because all the people who were great to look at had no money. Punk rockers do not have any money. Nobody had fucking money. Nobody had money for rent, forget about anything else.

Then one day a Hells Angel — this big Angel came in and went up to somebody at the bar and said, ‘Hey faggot’ and pushed him on the shoulder. The guy was a really cool looking punk rock guy and he was intimidated. Once the Angels come in, then it’s their club, and then it’s no longer my club or Trash. One brought many. Nobody would go there anymore. They were too afraid to go through the door. So that’s how Trash ended. That was about the time that punk rock itself was sort of waning.

Punk rock to me means anti-establishment. Punks saw that people conformed all over the place. It’s somebody with real talent to be unique and wild and out there. People used to come and sketch what I was wearing. The more beat up it is the better. They now have distressed leather. What fucking distressed? If you keep it on long enough, believe me it’ll become distressed. I always wanted to look different. I don’t want to look like anybody else. I want to look like me.

Remembering Ric Ocasek

Fans are starting to leave tributes to Ric Ocasek outside his townhouse on East 19th Street in Gramercy Park... the photos here are courtesy of @ThingsWendySees ...





Ocasek was found in his home yesterday. According to published reports, he died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. He was 75.

He co-founded The Cars in 1976 ... and went on to produce and record a variety of artists, including Bad Brains, Suicide, Guided by Voices and Weezer.

Remembering Robert Frank

As you likely heard, legendary photogapher Robert Frank died on Monday. He was 94.

According to published reports, he was in Inverness, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. He split his time between there and his home at 7 Bleecker Street just west of the Bowery.

EVG regular Dan Efram shares these photos of people leaving flowers and tributes outside his building on Bleecker Street, where he was often spotted sitting outside.















Here's more on Frank via The Associated Press:

The Swiss-born Frank influenced countless photographers and was likened to Alexis de Tocqueville for so vividly capturing the United States through the eyes of a foreigner. Besides his still photography, Frank was a prolific filmmaker, creating more than 30 movies and videos, including a cult favorite about the Beats and a graphic, censored documentary of the Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour. Black-and-white Super 8 pictures by Frank were featured on the cover of the Stones’ “Exile On Main Street,” one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most acclaimed albums.

Meanwhile, have been many tributes to Frank on social media... here's a small sampling...

View this post on Instagram

Robert Frank, gone from us - but his extraordinary vision, his films, & the details of daily life he captured with a little camera in his hands will continue to resonate through our shared consciousness. Long live Robert Frank, one of the greatest artists ever. & thank you Robert for the gifts you’ve given us all. (photo: Allen Ginsberg)

A post shared by Jim Jarmusch (@jim.jarmusch) on Sep 10, 2019 at 7:36am PDT

View this post on Instagram

I think I’ll always walk by his building hoping to see him sitting in his chair. RIP Robert Frank #robertfrank

A post shared by Michelle Rick (@villagegirl) on Sep 10, 2019 at 9:33am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Rest In Peace - Robert Frank. Thank you for all you’ve left us. This photo was from a chance encounter downtown in 1980 at a Larry Clark exhibition. The second shot was outside on Lafayette after my friend got a laugh out of him. Robert Frank, 1980. 📷@GODLIS

A post shared by Godlis (@godlis) on Sep 10, 2019 at 4:12pm PDT

A farewell to Unkle Waltie

Friends gathered this afternoon at the International Bar on First Avenue to pay tribute to longtime East Village resident (and iBar regular) Walter Kohl aka Unkle Waltie. He died July 30 at age 69.

Photo by Steven

Sip Ahoy: A remembrance for Unkle Waltie at the International

Friends are gathering tomorrow (Sept. 7) at the International Bar to celebrate the life of longtime East Village resident Walter Kohl (aka Unkle Waltie).

Kohl, who had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, died on July 30. He was 69.

The iBar is at 102 First Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.

For further reading about Unkle Waltie's phrase "Sip ahoy," check out these posts from 2011 via our old friend Marty, who's actually not that old.

RIP Brendan Cregan

[Image via Facebook]

Brendan Cregan, a longtime daytime bartender at Bull McCabe's Irish Pub on St. Mark's Place, died last Wednesday night at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. He was 64. According to a friend, Cregan died as the result of a fall on his way home in Woodside that evening.

Regulars at Bull McCabe's recall Cregan, a native of Northern Ireland, as the consummate professional with a sharp sense of humor.

"He had a wry, mischievous wit and a distinct twinkle in his eye as well as a serious nature," said Russell Atwood, a former daytime regular who also worked at the bar as a porter. "We got each other’s jokes."

Bull McCabe's has been a gathering spot for a group of artists and writers in recent years — especially during Cregan's shifts.

"He was a daily part of my life for the last 15 years," said the East Village-based Billy the Artist. "I got to know his beautiful loving family, and he was always interested in what was going on in my life ... like a caring father. He had a zest for life and adventure like no other and I will miss him dearly."

Visitation hours are tonight from 5 to 9 and tomorrow from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Edward D. Lynch Funeral Home, Inc, 43-07 Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside. A funeral mass will be held at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday at St. Sebastians RCC, 58th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside. (More details at this link.)

Cregan is survived by his wife Debbie and sons Rory and Conor.

Bull McCabe's is planning a celebration of Cregan's life at a date and time to be announced.

Thank you to Steven for background help on this post.

It's all gone somewhere beyond

In memory of David Berman — the singer-songwriter behind Silver Jews and, more recently, Purple Mountains — who died this week. He was 52. A cause of death has not been revealed. His death was ruled a suicide, according to published reports.

The top video is "Darkness and Cold" from the recently released new album by Purple Mountains. The clip below is for "Random Rules" with the Silver Jews from 1998...



East Village-based writer Sarah Larson penned this tribute to the singer-songwriter titled "David Berman Made Us Feel Less Alone."

RIP Unkle Waltie

Longtime East Village resident Walter Kohl (aka Unkle Waltie) died on July 30 at NYU Langone. He had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Kohl was 69.

Kohl was born in Switzerland in 1950. He moved to New York around 1970 and attended The Juilliard School.

A music engineer, Kohl had an incredible ear for music.

Friends said that he was known for his quips and barbs and the ability to effortlessly charm strangers. As they said, he would make friends for life after meeting somebody just for a few minutes.

There will be a memorial to celebrate his life at the International Bar on First Avenue in several weeks on Sept. 7 at 3 p.m.

Updated:



Thank you to EVG contributor Steven for reporting on Unkle Waltie.