Good Friday Blues today at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Via the EVG inbox...

St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery is holding its 18th annual Good Friday Blues service today from noon to 3 p.m.

Here's just a partial list of the featured performers:

• Stanley Banks, Grammy award-winning bassist.
• Art Barron, jazz trombonist, formerly of the Duke Ellington band, who has performed with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Tony Bennett.
• Bernice Brooks, drummer, who has shared the stage with Tito Puente, Patti Labella and other Jazz and R&B stars.
• Bobby Harden, acclaimed soul and blues musician and lead singer of the original Blues Brothers Band.
• Ayodele Maakheru, guitarist and performer in Broadway orchestras, including "Bring in da Noise/Bring in da Funk," "The Full Monty" and "The Wiz."

More info is at this link. Watch a Good Friday Blues service from 2015 here.

The ghost stand of Christmas past: Holiday confusion as trees return to 2nd Avenue

The EVG inbox lit up this afternoon like a Christmas tree after multiple readers shared photos of the tree stand returning to Second Avenue outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

This was the very spot that the Tree Riders had this past holiday season before they packed it up on Dec. 24.

Salim, who shared this photo below, notes that the trees appeared this afternoon, seemingly ready for sale, though no one was around to actually sell them. A ghost stand!



Meanwhile, Derek Berg spotted these workers delivering trees to a nearly locale in the Abe Lebewohl Triangle at 10th/Stuyvesant this afternoon ...





Apparently all this is prep work for holiday-related scenes tomorrow for "The Village," a new NBC series that has been filming around here in recent months.

Updated

I asked the Tree Riders via Facebook what was happening: "NBC liked our set up so much they asked us to come back after the holidays for a shoot!"


[Photo from last night]

Time for the new clock faces at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

[Photo by EVG reader George Towne]

The steeplejacks are working today at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, where a new (or refurbished?) clock is being installed...

EVG Steeplejack Correspondent Steven shared these photos of the workers installing the clock faces...















Workers removed the clock back on June 29 at the landmarked church on 10th Street and Second Avenue.

And the folks at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation shared this photo...



EVG reader Brian Philip Katz sent these pics...





The clocks had been stuck at 6:20 for some time.

Time stands still at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery

A few seasonal photos from this weekend of St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue and 10th Street...



As you may have noticed, the steeple is currently without its clock ... workers removed it for repairs back on June 29...

In like a lion, out like a lion

Photo outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery by Lola Sāenz.

The lion in winter*

Outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery this morning via Lola Sáenz...

* OK, technically still fall for another week

The Pride Ribbon Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery

In honor of Pride Month, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery has placed ribbons along Second Avenue at 11th Street to remember LGBTQ prisoners who are incarcerated in facilities throughout the country ... the St. Mark's community "is inviting prayerful attention to the situations of LGBTQ people in prison."

The accompanying signs note that "LGBTQ people in prison face a greater risk of physical and sexual victimization. They are more likely to experience assault and abuse by corrections officers as well as other prisoners, and less likely to have support from family and friends on the the outside due to their sexuality or gender identity."

Spiritual Sounds on Sunday

Via the EVG inbox... tomorrow (Sunday) at 5 p.m. ... St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery...

Keeping the dream alive at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

[Photo by Lola Sáenz]

Via the EVG inbox...

Join us for a celebratory dinner and conversation in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.

Spoken word artists D Cross and Bettina Gold, and poet Eric Waters are all intimately acquainted with the criminal justice system. Each artist’s performance will be followed by another course of great food and time for planning specific actions to increase awareness of racism and to reduce the harm of mass incarceration in the U.S.

Free will donations gratefully accepted.

The event at the church (entrance is on 11th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue) is 6:30-9 p.m. Details here.

Tree Riders on 2nd Avenue

One more Christmas/holiday tree note... the Tree Riders NYC set up their tree shop yesterday outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street... this is their 6th year here... and they always have the tallest/largest trees available in case you need one for an office lobby or outdoor plaza...



Previously on EV Grieve:
So you want to buy a tree for the holidays in the East Village

Another holiday season with Jonathan, the cheery Christmas-tree salesman of 1st Avenue

Noted

For some closure on the Green Day Stencil Promo on Historical Church Fence story... the ad was wiped off/painted over yesterday... not sure who did the work (a church employee? Green Day Idiot Team Nation member? Bille Joe Armstrong?)...



As previously noted, several readers sent emails to the Green Day Idiot Team Nation last week after the ad for the band's 12th album showed up along the fence outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery ... and someone there responded:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, it is being removed immediately.
Thank You,
Green Day - Idiot Nation Team

It took five days, but it was removed here on 11th Street and Second Avenue. Coincidentally (or not!), there is an empty six-pack of Corona at the exact spot where the ads were...

[Updated] Noted

You've probably seen those stenciled ads for the new Green Day record (the band's 12th!) on sidewalks and plywood seemingly everywhere.

An EVG reader wondered if the marketing folks could have spared putting three of them on the fence outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery ...

Updated 5 p.m. 10/10

Several readers sent emails to the Green Day Fan Club ... and they responded:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, it is being removed immediately.
Thank You,
Green Day - Idiot Nation Team

As of 4:45 p.m... the stenciled ads were still on the church's fence...



Updated 5:45 p.m. 10/11



Updated 10/12



Updated 10/13

Spring

[St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery by Allen Semanco]


[Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]


[TSP via DB]


[Over Avenue A via Grant Shaffer]


[Christo rooftop sunbathing on Avenue B by Bobby Williams]

Repost: The Ninth Street Bread N Cake Bakery was great until they applied for a liquor license

Digging into the archives here with this post from Nov. 5, 2010...

-----

Thanks to Goggla's comment the other day, we've all been spending far too much time looking at photos from the New York Public Library archives ... EV Grieve reader Pinhead came across this shot..

It's taken from the old Cooper Union building, looking at Stuyvesant Street to the east toward St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 1856.


As Pinhead says: "Be sure to zoom the amazing detail, like the Ninth Street Bread N Cake Bakery at 172 E 9th (an address that doesn't exist anymore because of the NYU dorm)."

Tree down at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery

Workers today had to remove the last of the majestic willows from St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery… along the eastern edge of the property at Second Avenue between East 10th Street and East 11th Street… EVG reader Daniel, who shared these photos, said that the tree was diseased (there was yellow tape around it for the past week or so) …











We're curious how old the tree was… here's a photo circa 1905 via the New York Cemetery Project…