Penny Pollak on the open mic and the big screen

For the past six years on Tuesday nights, Penny Pollak has hosted Penny's Open Mic at Under St Mark's Theater.

This coming Tuesday she is hanging up the mic (the show will go on without her, though).

Pollack is heading into production on her feature film with director Tony ("American History X") Kaye. She stars in "ABIGAIL: A Comedy About Suicide," which explores the themes she used in her one-woman performance titled "No Traveler (A Comedy About Suicide)." (The play debuted in 2010 during the Horse Trade Theater Group's Frigid New York Festival.)

Here, Pollak, a writer, actor, fire-breather, shares some thoughts on her years hosting the open mic as well as prepping for her film work.

Was it a difficult decision to end Penny's Open Mic after six years?

As much as I will miss the mic, the timing couldn't be more perfect. The way everything has fallen into place with my film, I couldn't be happier to work full time on it and see it come to life.

Also knowing that an Open Mic on Tuesday nights at Under St. Mark's will still be going with the same spirit puts my heart at ease. My house band Dan Ricker and Mike Milazzo with Kaitlin O'Connor will be hosting a new open mic in the same slot called The Open Mic Downstairs.

What have you taken away from that time?

I’ve made the dearest and closest friends I could ever meet, seen countless amazing performances. I’ve gotten to watch artists I respect take risks and had the opportunity to experiment myself and grow as an artist.

How is "No Traveler" evolving for the screen? This is more than a performance film?

It's a feature film called "ABIGAIL: A Comedy about Suicide." It explores the themes used in my play "No Traveler" but is a completely different story. We are in talks with an incredible ensemble cast and I’m very excited to be playing the lead.

How did Tony Kaye get involved?

I met Tony at my open mic. As well as being brilliant director he is also a very talented singer/songwriter. At the time he was making "Detachment" with Adrien Brody where there is a scene involving suicide. He came to see my play and immediately saw the potential for film. We would meet every week for quite a few months where he directed my writing into a whole new direction. We’re producing it under his company Above The Sea Productions.

Will you be filming in the East Village and Lower East Side?

The story takes place in the East Village so most of the filming will be here.

How do you plan on capturing the neighborhood?

As honestly as possible. I’ve lived and worked here since I moved to NYC and the neighborhood has shaped my life in a very deep way.

What is the timeline for production?

I’m leaving for LA right away to help finish pre-production and we hope to start filming as soon as possible.

Construction gear coming down from new residences on Seventh and A

[Bobby Williams]

On Wednesday, workers started removing the scaffolding and construction netting from 130 E. Seventh St. at Avenue A...


[Yesterday morning]

Since fall 2011, the building that houses 7A on the corner has been undergoing renovations... including converting some existing commercial space to residential use and reconstructing a portion of the existing penthouse, per the DOB. Public records show that the University of the Streets sold the building to Park Corner Development, LLC in September 2011 for $5 million.


[Yesterday afternoon]

No word if this units will be rentals or condos or something else...

Anyway, look for the rest of the sidewalk bridge to come down soon enough ... and maybe the 7A sidewalk cafe will see the sun again.

Last free Thursday night movie in Tompkins Square Park for the summer

Tonight marks the end of the free music-movie nights in Tompkins Square Park for the summer. This evening's selection: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers movie starring George ("Grizzly II: The Predator") Clooney. (This was originally rained out on June 20.)



There's also free pre-movie music from The Dapper Dans.

Where did the summer go?

Today in helpful warnings on East 11th Street

Between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Today's sign of the apocalypse

Oh! "The Carrie Diaries" will be filming around the neighborhood today... signs are up along East Seventh Street, and perhaps elsewhere... crews for the CW prequel to "Sex and the City" were shooting on Essex Street Tuesday...

It revolves around the eponymous Carrie , a shy high-school girl who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who tease her during her senior year of high school in the early 1980s and part of her life in New York working as a writer.

Let's star in a movie!

You may have seen some sort of film shoot going on today on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... we walked back and forth dozens of times thinking it was connected to "The Smurfs," which filmed right here back in the heady days of April 2010.



Oh! Oops!



Anyway, we have no idea what this was all about. Maybe you do?


[Next stop — Cooper Union!]

Photos by Bobby Williams

Happy Birthday Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer was born on this date in 1952... he died in 2002 of an undetectable heart arrhythmia. And I would have mentioned this even if the mural in his honor was not blasted away by workers on Monday on East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

As I reported Tuesday, the same artists will replicate the original mural... Serena Solomon at DNAinfo had some more information about the timing of all this.

Helm Management, which manages the building at 132 E. Seventh St., will take three to four weeks to replace the brick wall.

After that, Niagara co-owner Jesse Malin said that graffiti artists Dr. Revolt and Zephyr will return to recreate the Stummer mural.

Roberta Bayley took the above photo of Strummer on East 14th Street near Avenue C. Find more of her work here. [H/T Alex at Flaming Pablum]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Looks like fall, feels like summer]

City temporarily removes Jim Power's 9/11 mosaic on Astor Place (DNAinfo)

Penny Arcade on the vanishing downtown scene (The Observer)

Video! "Where You Been So Long" by Eden and John's East River String Band with Robert Crumb (YouTube)

New York is the most rude and arrogant state! (New York)

Remember Loew's Avenue B (Off the Grid)

A new anonymous Twitter account arrived today...

I feel so empty inside. @evgrieve

— 51 Astor Place (@51deathstar) August 21, 2013

New Bowery shanty (BoweryBoogie)

Controversial LES property owner buys more LES property (The Lo-Down)

A few more lost record stores (Flaming Pablum)

Thompson Street laundromat disappears (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

At the annual Johnny Ramone tribute (Rolling Stone)

From a reader:

"My partner and I found an obviously abandoned or lost housecat (had a collar on, box trained) at a construction site next to Bar 169 on East Broadway yesterday. We took her home as she was emaciated and needed some TLC."

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Kathy Von Hartz
Occupation: Teacher
Location: Meltzer Park, 1st Street between 1st and A
Time: 1 pm on Monday, Aug. 19

I grew up in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico. My father represented U.S. Steel exports and my mother was a teacher and they met in Puerto Rico. I spent my first 15 years in those three countries. I’m a teacher and my husband is a writer. He wrote for Time Life books and I taught at Head Start at Escuela Hispana Montessori.

My husband and I moved to the neighborhood 48 years ago after we were married. We lived on 6th Street between C and D for eight years. Affordability brought us here and once we had our first child, we found lots of room on East 6th Street.

Eventually we bought the building behind me. We could afford it on our teacher’s salary because nobody wanted to buy anything here. The building had been for sale for five years and nobody wanted it. It cost $64,000 for 10 one-bedroom apartments. But everybody still thought we were crazy. We could just make the mortgage payments and we renovated each apartment as it slowly turned over. We made do.

When we were living on 6th Street, we had a backyard for our children but I couldn’t let them use it. Teenage kids would get into the building on 5th Street, go up to the roof and throw bricks down into our backyard for fun. We made it through for 8 years and then one day as we rode the bus along Houston Street, I said, “Oh I want to live in one of those houses on 2nd Street that backs out onto Meltzer Park, because no one can throw anything down.” So I knocked on all the the five doors that backed out onto the park, and two of them said, “Yes we want to sell” and one of them was a better deal for us. So the park led us to this place.

Meltzer Park was built 42 years ago, two years before we moved in. When the 20-story Max Meltzer Senior Housing was built, they created the park because they needed to compensate for putting a skyscraper in a low-rise neighborhood. There were originally seven tenements here that had been torn down after a fire.

I formed the 2nd Street Block Association shortly after moving here. We got all of the 10 trees planted on 2nd Street. That was about 35 years ago. The City and the Parks Department had a superplan and they said they needed suggestions of where to put trees, for $20 a piece, and so I signed up immediately, sent a check for $200 and later we collected money from everybody and made wooden tree guards that are long since gone.

And then the drug situation became intolerable. We didn’t notice it when we first moved in, in 1973, but after a few years we did. They used to make their escape through the park. They’d line up for the drugs along 2nd Street in two phases. The money would be passed in one line and then you could go in another line and when the drugs came you got out of there. There would be someone on the corner with a whistle and when they whistled the guys with the drugs would just disappear through the park and get away from the police.

So I got the people in Meltzer to lock the park at night so that they couldn’t have the passage through. And eventually Howard Hemsley formed a group of people in the area called Before Another Shelter Tears Us Apart. They made a video of drug dealing and crack smoking on 3rd Street, where the men’s shelter is, because they had all these people coming to stay at the shelter and they didn’t have enough room for them. That video turned everything around. It helped spread awareness.

My husband would confront the dealers in a very respectful way and they would actually listen to him and move off the street. He would go up and tell them, “Please move; there are children on this block; there are old people on this block; we can’t have this.” They would say, “Yeah man, I understand” and go away.

So they moved down between Avenue A and B. But then we noticed this pattern where people with New Jersey plates would find parking on this nice wide street and then they’d walk down to Avenue A to get their drugs. We’d see it out the window from our house, so I had these stickers that stuck like crazy ... we’d write on them, “We know why you’re here. No drugs on this block. Keep away” and put it across their windshield.

They would come back to their car and we’d pull the shades down in our living room and with a bullhorn we’d say, “We know why you’re here. Stay away from this block. This is a drug free block.” And they’d take off, first trying to get this sticker off, but they couldn’t get it off. We did that for a couple months and eventually it pretty much went away.

Now the Housing Authority is short on cash and they want to get rid of the whole park and all 31 enormous trees. They want to put a 12-story building in its place. It’s called the Infill Plan.

We’re horrified and we’re fighting it. We’ve formed Friends of Meltzer Park. It’s horrible for us, but in Meltzer Towers there are 250 seniors, half of whom have breathing problems and other things that come to people our age. There are so many reasons for this park. We all need greenery.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

City temporarily closes The Brownstone on East 12th Street for illegal occupancy

On Monday, the city served a full vacate order on The Brownstone, the self-described "Jewish social club" at 224 E. 12th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.


[Click image to enlarge]

According to public documents, the city issued the order "for altered building occupied without C of O [certificate of occupancy]."

According to The Brownstone website:

New York City does not fall short in the way of bars, cocktail parties or other social events, however, it’s finding relatable people to identify with that can be difficult to come by. Enter The Brownstone, the new Jewish social club that sophisticated New Yorkers have been longing for.

Gracing Manhattan’s East Village, The Brownstone is a one-stop shop for college students and Young Professionals to meet their needs as Jewish inhabitants of NYC. If it’s time to shake up your weekly work routine because you find yourself constantly surrounded by the same crowd, come meet new faces at one of our social events. If you are searching for that nice Jewish partner to bring home to mom and dad, join us at one of our dating events. If you are seeking a business opportunity, attend our networking events that feature prominent leaders from various fields and industries. If interested in further cultivating your Jewish identity, enroll in our classes that range from Hebrew Ulpan to Dating in Today’s World.

Sounds as if they were fitting into the East Village just fine. In a complaint dated Aug. 8:

APARTMENT BUILDING CONVERTED TO DORMITORY WITH ROOFTOP BEING USED AS PARTY SPACE, SERVING ALCOHOL & PLAYING AMPLIFIED MUSIC.

There's no mention of the closure on The Brownstone's website, Facebook page or Twitter account.

Previously on EV Grieve:
12th Street brownstone becoming mini university for Jewish education

Looking at the East Village Brownstone

Otto's Tacos, opening this fall on Second Avenue

Work continues at 141 Second Ave. near East Ninth Street where Otto's Tacos will be opening soon... this week, the workers removed the signage of the previous occupant — the short-lived Good Guys.

We asked proprietor Otto Cedeno for more details on his restaurant.

On the concept:

"This project has been a year-plus in the making and I'm humbled beyond belief to have a restaurant amongst all the greats in the East Village. I'm originally from Orange County, Calif., and the genesis of this concept was to put the food I grew up with in a city that's now turned into home for me," he said. "I've been an on/off East Village resident for the last 10 years, and couldn't think of a better area to open my first restaurant."

On the menu:

"We have a very simple and focused menu that allows us to spend time and flavor on each item ... we're keeping everything from the brand to the buildout to the menu simple. We want our customers to feel comfortable and right at home ... [and have] a fantastic dining experience in a grab-and-go atmosphere."

On his background:

"This is my first restaurant, actually. Prior to this I was the director of production and operations at Livestream.com. My background is film production and tech. This was a lifelong dream of mine to do and thought, 'I'm alive now, who knows if I will be later, let's just go for it.'
We are beyond excited to open."

Cedeno is planning for a mid-September opening. CB3 approved a beer license for Otto's last month.

Tea Drunk coming soon to East Seventh Street

Red, the boutique featuring jewelry and apparel from owner Donatella Quintavalle, closed back in March on East Seventh Street next to Butter Lane ... a tipster notes the arrival of a sign announcing a new tenant — Tea Drunk.

Don't be alarmed by the name!

Here's a description of the shop via Facebook:

Mission
Our mission is simple: to open access in the west to the finest Chinese teas in the world, and to provide an authentic tea experience that embraces traditional methods of production and consumption. No imitations, no impersonations. Just full-bodied, first-class, traditionally harvested tea.

Description
Even within China, where the demand for fine tea is huge and counterfeits abound, it’s hard to find authentic tea like ours. And that’s just in the local markets! Imagine how much harder it gets to find farm-sourced teas all the way across the pond in the States. So if you’re sick of the knock-off brands and you want the real deal, come to us. We’re confident that our tea is THE best available Stateside. But don’t take our word for it — try some for yourself!

Here's the store's website with more info. Meanwhile, the space to the east of Butter Lane remains on the market.