The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park

The city's annual salute to the legendary saxophonist is this weekend… with the show coming to Tompkins Square Park tomorrow (that would be Sunday).

Here's the lineup: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Joe Lovano (pictured), Myra Melford and Michael Mwenso.

Head to the Jazz Festival website for info on all the artists.

The free show is from 3-7 p.m.

Workers remove plywood tribute at the site of 2nd Avenue explosion

[Photo from May 18 by Vinny & O]

On May 18, workers removed the plywood fence that surrounded the site of where 119-123 Second Ave. stood until the deadly gas explosion on March 26. However, the plywood — with photos and tributes to Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, the two men who died on March 26 — remained up behind the new chain-link fence.

Yesterday, though, several readers mentioned that workers took down that plywood fencing…



… and stacked it up in the lot…



Meanwhile, we haven't heard much about the investigation into the blast. Last Friday, in an article about B&H Dairy reopening, the Post had a few updates on what they called "an ongoing criminal probe."

According to the Post, prosecutors and homicide investigators continue to question witnesses.

They spoke to Marius Wesser, the lawyer for chef Machendra Chongbang, who worked at Sushi Park, the site of the explosion. He said that he went for an interview last month at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Per the Post:

“They must have had 20 people there,” Wesser said. “Fire investigators, [DA] rackets bureau people, NYPD — it was pretty intense.”

The DA’s Office declined to comment, and lawyers for Maria Hrynenko, who owned the blast building and the one next door, did not return calls.

H/T Vinny & O

Party tent down

As we like to do, we were taking in the view via the blogger portals along Avenue A … where those condos are going in between East 11th Street and East 12th Street…

This caught our eye(s) …



What went on here? What's with the party tent in the pit?

The moon at the moment

The view tonight from the East Village via Grant Shaffer

Chairman of the Bored

Hey, it's Iggy Pop from 1979 with "I'm Bored."

At the Village East Cinema

[EVG photo from last week]

I've been meaning to write something about the historic theater — my favorite in the neighborhood — on Second Avenue at East 12th Street.

Oh, for starters, something that I was unaware of: Screenings before noon every day are $8, $6 off the usual price. (They also have $1 films for kids and parents in the mornings. "The Wizard of Oz" was playing this week.)

Anyway, that great analog marquee has been carrying the "historic auditorium reopens" message for weeks now. But most of the movies I see here, though, tend to be in the small theaters on the lower level.

I finally sucked it up to see whatever might be playing in the big room upstairs. So, the other morning, I was one of the four people who paid his or her $8 to see — eep! — "Terminator: Genysis" in the historic auditorium…







The renovated auditorium reopened on May 22. Here's more about the refurbishment via the Evergreene Architectural Arts website:

Built in 1925 as the Yiddish Art Theatre, the City Cinema Village East is one of a handful of Moorish Revival-style buildings in New York City. Intended to house Maurice Schwartz’s Theatre Company, the property ultimately becoming a multiplex in 1992.

In early 2015, EverGreene conservators conducted a historic finishes investigation, analyzing and documenting the condition of the ornamental plaster ceiling. Craftsmen removed 75 large plaster elements from the ceiling from which they cast new ornament in our New York City studio. The design decision was made to stabilize the extant ornament and craft and decoratively finish new ornament to be compatible not to restore the ceiling. This lends a “conservation” aesthetic to the Village East Cinema.

Using both traditional and mechanical methods, craftsmen installed new plaster elements into the ceiling and consolidated extant ornament to reinforce the support structure. Decorative artists removed and cleaned flaking paint from the ceiling and inpainted the newly-installed ornament to match the existing palette, seamlessly integrating new with old.

Here's a shot of the restored ceiling via the Evergreene website (they have more photos here).



You can read more about the theater's history at Vanishing New York.

And now you do you want to discuss "Terminator: Genysis"?

How does rent in the East Village stack up against other neighborhoods?

[Click to go big]

The folks at real-estate startup Zumper released a report on the most and least affordable neighborhoods to rent in (specifically one-bedroom apartments)...

In the infographic above, you can see how the East Village stacks up vs. other neighborhoods. For rents lower than the East Village's $2,725 in Manhattan, you could go south to the Lower East Side ($2,550) or head up to Central Harlem and West Harlem, both with a median of $2,100 for a one bedroom, and Washington Heights at $1,750.

Meanwhile, Zumper provided data on how the East Village rates against the city as a whole...

The new lights on the Con Ed substation

Several residents who live on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B have told us about a group of people — anywhere from three to 12 at times – who have been sleeping on the sidewalk along the Con Ed substation this summer… according to residents, they pack up and leave early in the mornings.

One resident said that they have worn out their welcome, though declining to go into details on what this meant exactly. (The reader did say the EMTs have had to pay several visits in the morning.)

So perhaps this is why workers earlier this week installed new lighting on the substation (new lights actually went in all around the structure on A and East Sixth Street)…





There are three new lights in total (only two in the reader-submitted photo below) on the East Fifth Street side …



However, as of Thursday night, only one of the three lights seemed to work on East Fifth Street …



If the lights were put up to deter anyone from sleeping here, then they didn't work. Several people still spent the night under the new light in the middle the past few evenings.

The B-Movie King at the Anthology Film Archives this weekend

B-movie titan Roger Corman will be appearing tonight and tomorrow at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue to introduce a few of his classics — "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes," "A Bucket of Blood" and "The Tomb of Ligeia."

The Wall Street Journal had an interview with the 89-year-old Corman yesterday. You can read that here. An excerpt as way of an introduction:

Among the 400-plus movies Roger Corman has produced or directed, there are titles more memorable than the films, such as “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and “Teenage Cave Man.”

But there also are early efforts from a string of famous directors and actors whose careers he helped to launch. They include Francis Ford Coppola (“Dementia 13”), Martin Scorsese (“Boxcar Bertha”), Peter Bogdanovich (“Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women”) and Jack Nicholson, whom Mr. Corman first met in a method-acting class.

Mr. Corman ... could have single-handedly invented drive-in movies in the 1950s, when a postwar eruption of teenage culture created a new audience for entertainment at its most sensational. The B-movie impresario kept apace with the times, however, tapping into social trends—and wildly profitable and influential movie concepts—for a career that spans seven decades.

The Anthology is on Second Avenue at East Second Street. Find out more about the screenings here.

And to get you in the mood…

Take a photo vacation in 1980 New York City

[Houston and 2nd Avenue from April 1980 by Ed Sijmons]

Earlier this month, a reader sent me a 1980 NYC photo essay from the Tribeca Citizen.

Here's the premise. In the spring of 1980, Ed Sijmons and LouiseLH of Amsterdam visited New York City and took hundreds of photos ... and Sijmons recently posted them on Flickr... and passed the links on to the Citizen.

While the above photo of East Houston and the Bowery is the closest they came to the East Village, there are plentiful shots from all over the city, from the Lower East Side, Chinatown, the Financial District, Midtown... even some in Coney Island.

If you have some time to browse, then you can head over to Sijmons’s Flickr page. Look for the albums marked "NYC 1980 part1" (as well as parts 2, 3, and 4).

Vinyl reissues for Liquid Liquid

Thanks to BoingBoing, we learned that the influential Downtown NYC post-punk dance band Liquid Liquid is getting the re-release treatment this week via the Superior Viaduct label.

Here's more from Superior Viaduct:

Liquid Liquid emerged from New York City's vibrant Downtown scene in 1981. Their three EPs, all originally released on the legendary 99 Records, would heavily influence dance-oriented indie rock of the early aughts (LCD Soundsystem, DFA Records, et al.)

Superior Viaduct is honored to present these first-time vinyl reissues of Liquid Liquid's classic records (self-titled, Successive Reflexes, and Optimo) in their original 12-inch format as well as an archival LP of rare recordings by the pre-LL bands, Liquid Idiot and Idiot Orchestra.

Other Music looks to have them in stock ... Not sure about our friends at Academy Records on East 12th Street just yet...

In the meantime, you can watch the video above for "Cavern" from 1983 ... with that baseline that went on to do "White Lines."

Your dreams of living in a penthouse cottage above Kiehl's are dashed for now

Back in June we noted that those cottage-style penthouses atop the building that houses Kiehl's on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street were on the market with an asking price of $4.4 million.

Well, the place is now in contract, Curbed reported today:

When reached for comment, Corcoran listing broker Tamir Shemesh couldn't give up what the three-bedroom pad is selling for, only that it's "going for a very good price" and that "both the seller and buyer are very happy." We'd be happy, too, if those were our new digs.

Well, maybe this cabin will return to market.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Live in tranquil cottages overlooking … 3rd Avenue (but still)