RIP Michael Lydon

Photo by Steven 

Michael Lydon, a longtime East Village resident, musician, author and rock journalist, died on July 30. He was 82. 

According to The New York Times, he passed away from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Residents are probably familiar with him from recent years, as he and his longtime wife, Ellen Mandel, were active in the local community, performing as Lydon & Mandel at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Third Street Music School Settlement, the Tompkins Square Park tree lighting, and various block parties.

However, for many generations of music fans, he was known for his writing about the top music events of the day and bands such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones.

He was an early top editor at Rolling Stone and wrote some 20 books, including "The Rolling Stones Discover America," "Ray Charles: Man and Music," and "Rock Folk: Portraits From the Rock 'n' Roll Pantheon." 

It's no surprise he chose a life surrounded by music. As he wrote on his website: 

I love music. We had a piano in my big Boston Irish family; my mother sang Handel, my father loved John McCormack. An aunt gave us the Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall LPs — I flipped for "Sing Sing Sing." In high school, I wore out my Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington records, but convinced I'd never learn to play jazz, I became a writer instead. 

Here's an excerpt about his early career and a college-era pan of the Beatles ... via the Times: 

As a young Newsweek correspondent fresh from Yale University, he arrived in London in the mid-1960s — a time when the postwar generation, with its taste for avant-garde fashion and rafter-rattling rock, was aiming to blast the bowler hats from the heads of the country's traditionalists. 

It was there that he met the Beatles, whom he had derided as "poor foreign imitations" of the American rock 'n' roll originals in a 1964 article for The Yale Daily News. 

"Whenever the first strains of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ begin to twitch my stirrup bones,” Mr. Lydon wrote, "I send out silent screams for help to Chuck Berry, Elvis" and others "who have long defended the American way of rock." 

His view changed after the Beatles' landmark 1965 album, Rubber Soul, with its nuanced and introspective songwriting. The album seemed to change the Beatles' view of themselves, too. "You don't know us now if you don't know 'Rubber Soul,'" John Lennon told Mr. Lydon in a 1966 interview. "All our ideas are different now."

Read more about his life at the Times here. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Whistling in Tompkins Square Park with Michael Lydon

RIP Oswald 'Ozzie' Rodriguez Jr.

The La MaMa theater community is mourning the loss of Oswald "Ozzie" Rodriguez Jr., who passed away on July 24. He was 81.

A passionate artist, playwright, actor, and longtime steward of La MaMa's history, Rodriguez dedicated decades to the East Village's legendary experimental theater on Fourth Street. 

Here is more from LaMama: 

It is with profound sadness that La MaMa announces the passing of our beloved Archive Director Ozzie Rodriguez (2/20/1944 – 7/24/2025). His love of and dedication to La MaMa, his careful stewardship of the Archive and his abiding friendship will be sorely missed by all of us. We send our love and prayers to his family and all those near and dear to him. We mourn with them the monumental loss of this great man. Our hearts are broken. 

He joined La MaMa in the early 1970s as a resident director under founder Ellen Stewart. In 1987, he became director of the La MaMa Archive, where he helped preserve and share the history of the Off-Off-Broadway movement. His dedication ensured that generations to come could access the stories, artifacts, and spirit of La MaMa's groundbreaking work. 

A bilingual playwright and actor, Rodriguez also founded two experimental theater companies and mentored countless artists. He is remembered not only for his stewardship of La MaMa's legacy, but also for his warmth, generosity, and belief in the power of community theater. 

LaMama is inviting friends and colleagues to leave their remembrances at this link. While plans are still underway for an official memorial celebration, an informal gathering will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 12, at the Community Arts Space, 74A E. Fourth St., between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

 For more on the La MaMa Archive, which Rodriguez helped shape into a vital resource, visit this link.

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Remembering Jason Goodrow

Photos courtesy of Satoko Goodrow 

Friends and family gathered yesterday in La Plaza Cultural on Ninth Street and Avenue C to celebrate the life of longtime neighbor Jason Goodrow, a beloved local musician who passed away in May. 

Attendees remembered Goodrow with songs and stories, honoring his decades-long presence in the neighborhood music scene. A talented performer, mixer, and producer, he played in numerous bands over the years and left a lasting impression on those who knew him.

Tomorrow night, the music continues with a "Life Celebration Jam" at ReVision Lounge and Gallery (219 Avenue B, between 13th and 14th Streets). The event begins at 7 p.m. Find details here.

Celebrating the life of Jason Goodrow

Friends and family will gather Sunday (tomorrow) from 3-8 p.m. at La Plaza Cultural to celebrate the life of Jason Goodrow, who passed away in May. 

Here's more about his life from a memorial page titled Jason Goodrow Forever: 

Jason Charles Samuel Goodrow was born to Garry Goodrow and Anne-Juliette Marlowe in NY City in 1959. A bright child of hippy beatnic parents who moved to San Francisco (father Garry a founding member of the Committee). 

Jason went to Berkeley High School, playing in many a punk band, and returned to NY to study at Hunter College. Rock and Roll took over his life, where he played guitar (bass, sitar, mandolin, and banjo) all over the Tri-State Area for the next 50 years. 

A fixture of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, playing in too many bands to mention, but a few of note: musical director and guitarist for 25 years for the Jive 5, Episonic, Slow Poke, Dum Dum Project, Spy Vs Spy (then Two Spy Guys), Rogue's March, Seanchai and many gigs with Adam Roth. Mixing and producing countless musical projects at Context Studios on Avenue A for many years... 

He is survived by his wife, Satoko; his sons, Ichiro and Tadashi; and his sister, Georgia.

Jason will be remembered for his musical talent, his deep ties to the Lower East Side, and the community he built through decades of performing, mixing, and mentoring.

There's also a "Life Celebration Jam" on Tuesday evening at Revision Lounge on Avenue B.

H/T Steven

Tuesday's parting shot

Ozzy Osbourne tribute at Superiority Burger on Avenue A... (H/T Rainer Turim) ...

RIP Marcia Resnick

Marcia Resnick with Andy Warhol and William Burroughs in 1980 

Photo by Victor Bockris via @marcia.resnick 

Marcia Resnick, a photographer known for her striking portraits of cultural figures from the Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s — including Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, Johnny Thunders and Mick Jagger — died on June 17. She was 74. 

The cause was lung cancer, her sister Janice Hahn told The Washington Post. 

A Brooklyn native, Resnick graduated from Cooper Union in 1972 and earned a master of fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973, where she studied with artist John Baldessari. 

In a bio recounting her early years, Resnick described teaching photography at Queens College and NYU by day, and spending her nights immersed in the city's punk and art scenes — photographing musicians and artists at venues like CBGB, Max's Kansas City and the Mudd Club. 

"Guilty at spending so much time in clubs, I convinced myself that my photographic forays into the night were my art," she wrote. 

Her work for publications like the SoHo Weekly News and New York Magazine gave her access to many of the era's key cultural figures, whom she often photographed both candidly and in stylized studio sessions. 

Many of these portraits were featured in her 2015 book, "Punks, Poets and Provocateurs: New York City Bad Boys 1977–1982," one of several she published during her career. 

"She was the person who connected most with that scene and reproduced it in the photographs and all its people," her friend and collaborator Victor Bockris told The Washington Post. 

Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among others. The George Eastman Museum called her "one of the most ambitious and innovative American photographers of the 1970s."

RIP John Garbarini

Photo via @internationalbarnyc 

The crew at the International Bar on First Avenue have paid tribute to a longtime regular and friend to many people there (and elsewhere in the neighborhood) in a recent Instagram post... 

RIP John Garbarini, 

A regular hero 

A master engineer 

A talented photographer, 

Jack of all trades and mastered them all. 

Our beloved friend, family, and regular. An irreplaceable hole in our hearts. 

He passed away on June 11 after complications of heart failure. He was 72. There's a lovely feature obituary here, with details on his playing basketball at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Catholic High School in the Bronx to his later career as a photographer and contractor. 

The longtime resident of the East Village and Little Italy "appreciated New York City's quirks and color."

RIP Billy Jones

Photo via @billysrecordsalon 

Members of the local music community were shocked and saddened by the news of Billy Jones' passing on Saturday. The indie music impresario was known for running Baby's All Right in Williamsburg and, more recently, Night Club 101 on Avenue A. 

According to Pitchfork, he died from an aggressive brain cancer. He was 45. 

Jones had been a regular in the local music scene, booking shows at several now-closed EV spaces, including Sin-é on St. Mark's Place and Elvis Guesthouse on Avenue A, as well as Pianos on Ludlow Street. 

In 2013, he and Zachary Mexico opened Baby's All Right in Brooklyn, which "helped revive the city's indie scene," per Pitchfork. More recent collaborations included Funny Bar on Essex Street and Night Club 101, which debuted at the end of the year in the former Pyramid space on Avenue A. 

He was also known for his work as a DJ with The Lot Radio and running his vinyl emporium, Billy's Record Salon, in Brooklyn. A friend to many, Jones left an imprint on every scene he touched.

As a tribute at Brooklyn Vegan noted yesterday: 

It's hard to underestimate the impact Billy had on the NYC music scene of the last 20 years. His taste was impeccable and the clubs he ran became places you hung out even if you weren't there for the band... More than anything, Billy was a friend and also a very rare bird in the music industry: a genuinely nice person who would always greet you with a smile and hug. 

The tributes on social media included...

 

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A celebration of his life is planned for later this summer at Baby's All Right. Details to come.

Remembering Jill Sobule

Image via @jillsobule 

Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter best known for her groundbreaking 1995 hit "I Kissed a Girl," which became the first openly queer-themed song to reach the Billboard Top 20, died Thursday morning in a house fire in Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul, Minn. She was 66.

According to published reports, Sobule was staying with friends while she rehearsed for an upcoming performance. 

In the East Village, Sobule was remembered for her storytelling and music. She was a 2023 Drama Desk Award nominee for her autobiographical musical "F*ck7thGrade," which played multiple return engagements at wild project on Third Street between 2022 and 2024.

The wild project shared the following on Instagram...

 

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RIP Clem Burke

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Clem Burke was 70.

Thank you all. Clem loved what he was doing. He lived his dream

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— Cʜʀɪs Sᴛᴇɪɴ (@chrisstein.bsky.social) April 7, 2025 at 10:18 AM

RIP Janne Schaefers

Information via the EVG inbox... 

It is with profound sadness that the East Fifth Street Block Association announces the death of Janne Schaefers. 

Janne was the central force of the East Fifth Street Block Association for many years. Her association with the BA began with the trees that now line East Fifth Street between First Avenue and The Bowery, for which she is solely responsible. She was also the driving force behind all substantive efforts by the block association. 

She spent countless hours at Community Board State Liquor Authority Committee meetings advocating for residents on and around East Fifth Street. She organized community protests that resulted in major agreements with large businesses, garnering substantial commitments to the quality of life for East Fifth Streeters and the elderly residents of The Greene Residence. She was also involved in the protest and eventual closing of Sin Sin, an intensely disruptive rogue bar (and location of a murder) located on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue.

Janne was a fighter. She worked hard for our block, the trees, and the quality of life she expected for herself and her neighbors. If you knew her, we sure hope you were on her right side. If you weren't, well, you weren't the only one! 

As Spring approaches and the budding canopy of trees blesses East Fifth Street for another year, take a moment to enjoy them and give thanks to the tough old gal who brought them to us.

Fundraiser underway for patron killed at Tom & Jerry's on March 1

Tom & Jerry's has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the family of Anton "Munch" Albert, a patron fatally shot in the early hours of March 1 at the longtime Elizabeth Street bar.

Here's more via the GoFundMe account: 

On the morning of March 1st, our friend Anton "Munch" Albert was killed in a shocking and callous act of violence. Contrary to some media reports, he was not an employee of ours, but he was a very much admired and loved member of our community. His gentle and warm nature made him many friends in Tom & Jerry's, and he will be greatly missed by our team and those who, like Munch did, call T&J's a home from home. 

He leaves behind a loving family, including his 9-year-old daughter, who will need all the support they can get during this untimely period of grief. The proceeds from this fundraiser will directly go to Munch's family to cover the costs of his funeral and to support his daughter. 

You can find the campaign at this link. 

Albert reportedly lived on Staten Island. He was 39.

Little information has been made public about the shooting, including a description or photo of the alleged shooter who, according to multiple published reports, fired several times into the bar, striking Albert. 

According to the Post: "Witnesses told cops there was no interaction between the two men before the shooting, but police were unsure if the victim was targeted, cops said."

RIP Hal Hirshorn

Photo for EVG from 2016 by James Maher

Several EVG readers shared the sad news that Hal Hirshorn, an artist well-known in the downtown community, passed away on Feb. 4. 

Little had been made public about his death until a feature at The New York Times yesterday. His sister, Harriet Hirshorn, told the paper that the cause of death was coronary artery disease. He was 60. 

Per the Times: 

While other artists of his generation rode the art-market boom of the last three decades, he remained aloof, rarely putting his work up for sale at galleries. His spare website features a few of his paintings and photographs, but no contact information or personal details. 

His work was absolutely analog. Mr. Hirshorn made his own paints using traditional ingredients, and he scoured the Chelsea flea market for antique camera parts, the older and more obscure the better. 

His landscapes drew on a color palette of dirty greens and autumnal browns. They were Turner-esque in their near abstraction, with swirls of misty clouds obscuring craggy cliffs and stormy seas. 

His photographs likewise seemed to exist out of time. He made them by applying a solution of salt and silver to drawing paper, layering it with a negative and exposing it to light to capture an image — a technique developed in England in the mid-19th century that eventually fell out of favor because it required very long exposures that made it hard to keep an image in focus. 

He arrived here in the late 1980s. During an interview with EVG's James Maher in August 2016, Hirshorn lamented the changing neighborhood. 

Basically within a five-minute walk [today] most of the East Village that I’ve known over the course of 25, almost 30 years is gone, just gone, not like in bits and pieces, shifting here and there — just one fell swoop. Just to see everything radically redeveloped is what’s so stunning, because it used to happen in bits and pieces as the real estate went up. Now they’re doing blocks instead of buildings. 

An EVG reader emailed us to say, "He was a wonderfully sweet, quirky man and a brilliant painter and photographer. I'm glad to have called him a friend."

 

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RIP David Johansen

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RIP Walter Robinson

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Walter Robinson, the painter, writer, and editor and a decades-long presence on the New York art scene with deep ties to the East Village arts community, died yesterday. 

According to published reports, Robinson, whose roles included serving as art editor of the East Village Eye in the early 1980s, died of cancer. He was 74.

Tributes include:

• Artnet

• The Art Newspaper

• Whitehot Magazine

Bella’s passing marks another sad chapter in East Village fire tragedy

Bobby and Bella 

Bella, the miniature pinscher of late East Village resident Robert "Bobby" Bartolomey, has passed away following complications from the apartment fire that claimed her owner's life last Sunday. 

Bella succumbed Friday evening to an infection and neurological damage caused by smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning, according to a post from Dean Mann, the East Village resident who took Bella in after the FDNY found her in the apartment at 65 Second Ave. 

Here's more from Mann from the GoFundMe set up to help care for Bella: 

While this is certainly not the outcome we had all hoped for and supported, it is a grim reality of the circumstances that Bella experienced. It was a miracle that Bella survived the fire, as she was in the apartment while the fire burned for more than 30 minutes. The support from the community, first responders and the many veterinary medical professionals who treated her gave Bella a fighting chance; however, after almost 5 days of fighting for her life, Friday evening she joined her owner in heaven. Their legacy in the neighborhood will forever be remembered. 

My sister was kind enough to set up this GoFundMe and at the time we felt like Bella would be released from the hospital within a day or two; however, she remained in critical care and the decision to give her a fighting chance was made entirely possible by the support of the community and everyone who donated to help Bella. Your generosity allowed Bella the ability to receive the amazing care up until the very end. 

While this story is extremely sad, it also is very heartwarming to me as so many of the local people from the neighborhood reached out, contributed and stepped up to keep this person's legacy and the dog alive. ... I was so moved by the support and had no idea so many people knew Bobby (a retired veteran and certainly a staple of the neighborhood who was never seen without Bella). 

This is truly a remarkable NYC and East Village story, I cannot express enough my gratitude for the people I have met through this experience. I had visited Bella in the hospital everyday this week and though I am terribly saddened at this outcome, I am at peace knowing that she is no longer suffering. 

The FDNY found Bartolomey, 75, in his apartment last Sunday morning after the fire broke out. The FDNY has not yet released a cause for the blaze.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Neighbor steps up to care for dog injured in 2nd Avenue fire that claimed owner's life

A moment with Marianne Faithfull on St. Mark's Place in 1992

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Marianne Faithfull with her longtime accompanist Barry Reynolds at Sin-é, the legendary music cafe at 122 St Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue in June 1992. Photo by Allen Ginsberg. 

Faithfull died yesterday. She was 78.

RIP Steven Englander

Updated: 12/19: ABC No Rio announced this memorial fundraiser in Englander's memory.

-----

Sad news to share from ABC No Rio, the collectively run arts organization on the Lower East Side. (Info and photo via Facebook): 

It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the passing of our visionary director, Steven Englander. 

As many of you knew, Steven was diagnosed with a rare form of lung disease over a decade ago. Despite a successful lung transplant 6 years ago, Steven passed away on Thursday, Dec. 12, comfortable, pain-free, and surrounded by the two things he lived for — his family and the ABC No Rio community. 

Those who knew Steven were touched by his commitment to the New York City DIY arts community. He helped mold ABC No Rio into a sanctuary for New York activists, artists, and musicians through the simple act of believing that what you had to say was relevant, powerful, and, if given a platform, transformative. Steven dedicated his life to inclusive, community-run art spaces that give voice to oppositional culture, and we will be forever grateful for his work. 

Not only did Steven's philosophy shape what ABC No Rio became, but he also shaped what it will become. A true visionary for what was possible, Steven began planning and fighting for the creation of a brand-new arts center over 20 years ago. And as a testament to his 'by hook or by crook' mentality and his belief in collective power, it's happening. His dream's realization is underway, with ongoing construction work following July's groundbreaking ceremony. 

When the new ABC No Rio building opens its doors, Steven's philosophy will once again have a home to flourish and inspire the next generation of DIY art culture. 

He was 63.

ABC No Rio's new building is under construction at the site of its previous home on Rivington Street between Suffolk and Clinton on the Lower East Side. There's an expected 2027 reopening date.

Among the tributes...

 

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Englander's passing comes two months after the death of another longtime resident who was intrumental in creating spaces for artists and performers — Cowboy Ray Kelly, sculptor, leader of the Rivington School, and co-founder of the performance space NoSeNo. He died Oct. 12 at age 79.