Tuesday, September 17, 2013

St. Mark's Bookshop looking for volunteers to help 'reinvigorate the shop's identity'

[EVG file photo]

From the EVG inbox...

St. Mark's Bookshop is presently immersed in this change. We seek to relocate to a new space and while we're at it, reinvigorate the shop's identity. Our vision includes the kind of curated, progressive selection of titles in literature, poetry, politics, critical theory, small press publications and hard-to-find journals and magazines our customers have come to expect to find on our shelves.

We also envision a hybrid organization that would present nonprofit arts programming, including a comprehensive roster of author events, lectures and literary gatherings housed by a community-supported bookstore, a physical brick-and-mortar space where people meet, discuss ideas, browse, discover and enjoy non-electronic books and publications and listen to great writers present their work.

We're passionate about this future and hope you will help us get there. Here's how you can get involved in launching the new St. Mark's Bookshop.

VOLUNTEER:

We need individuals

• people with expertise in marketing and in the following sub-specialties: social media, public relations and communication campaign strategy. Two to eight hours per month, September-December.

• educators/academics, readers and writers to be our advocates. Get on our growing mailing list, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and share news about St. Mark's Bookshop with your personal and professional networks. Help to get out the word about upcoming events and key dates announced in our newsletter, September 2013 forward.

• community networkers — who do you know? Help St. Mark's Bookshop connect with advocates throughout the city, the rest of the country and across the globe. September 2013 on.

Look for updates in mid September and throughout the rest of 2013. We will announce our new location soon!

And please drop by the bookshop. We remain committed to the East Village community and local writers.

Find more details about all this, including contact info, right here.

New jack cornball alert! Motion picture sneak preview tomorrow night at UCB East Theater



From the EVG inbox... break out your cargo shorts!

There's an advance screening and Q&A with with writer/director Stuart Zicherman for "A.C.O.D." (stands for Adult Children of Divorce) on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 9 p.m. at the UCB East Theater on East Third Street. The new comedy stars Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Amy Poehler, Catherine O'Hara, Jessica Alba, Clark Duke, among others.

Tickets can be purchased here for $5

A quick look at Sarge's, hopefully reopening soon



Happened to be walking by EVG favorite Sarge's on Third Avenue the other day... the 48-year-old deli between 36th and 37th sustained extensive damage following a three-alarm fire last November.

The good news is that owner Andrew Wengrover recently told Eater that he was hoping to be open by the middle of this month... or as late as the first week of October. Per Wengrover: the reopened Sarge's will be the same as it always was. Yes please.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Once more with feeling



Thanks to @EliJGay for sharing this shot this evening from East Ninth Street...

Early this evening in cloud coverage







Photos by Bobby Williams

About that CBGB Music and Film Festival post from earlier today

The piece that we linked to at AdWeek this morning was apparently incorrect ... according to festival publicists, no bands have been confirmed for the CBGB Music and Film Festival. AdWeek has amended their original post. And we removed the subsequent incorrect info about the bands.

Meanwhile!

Find more festival info at the CBGB site.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition


[Bobby Williams]

Police looking for suspect in robbery, shooting on Clinton Street (The Lo-Down)

The bell of St. Brigid's (Ephemeral New York)

Opposition to liquor-license renewal for the DL (BoweryBoogie)

Good news: Pino's Prime Meats saved from eviction (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Back Fence closing on Bleecker (The Villager)

... and now John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Chuck Berry help Mike Douglas with macrobiotic cooking... from February 1972...



Via Dangerous Minds.

A big improvement for (maybe) the worst East Village corner



Whoa. Shocker. That sidewalk bridge that had been on the corner of First Avenue and East 14th Street is finally gone... Oh! So this is what all these businesses look like...



As for this being maybe the worst corner in the neighborhood for general congestion, stupidity, annoyances ... that's subjective... but it really sucks. You may have other least-favorite corners.

Waiting for the rest of Joe Strummer



On Friday, workers removed the remaining sidewalk bridge and scaffolding from 132 E. Seventh St. at Avenue A ... where, you know, the 10-year-old Joe Strummer mural got blasted away... (We heard from Niagara insiders that the mural would return, we just didn't have the confirmation from ownership at the time.)

Well, workers repaired the crumbling wall where the Strummer mural lived...



By Saturday, the wall was being prepped...



And yesterday, as first noted, Dr. Revolt, the original artist, started work on the new mural.





According to a tweet from Malin, there will be a celebration party for the mural at Niagara on Thursday evening.

All photos by Bobby Williams.

When Tompkins Square Park had a Milk House



I'm pretty sure that I've posted these before. Regardless! A few people mentioned these photos after the shots I posted Thursday morning of Tompkins Square Park circa 1904 ...

Details from the photo credit:

Bain News Service, publisher.

Milk House, Tompkins Sq.; hot day

[between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]

Here's another shot...



One reader put the date from July 1911, when a heatwave in the city was blamed for 146 deaths in six days, according to this article (PDF!) in the Times. Ephemeral New York has more on the Milk Houses here.

The Milk House lost its lease the following year and became a Shake Shack.

Photos via The Library of Congress.

Former Affaire space on the market on Avenue B



Affaire, the French bistro and lounge, closed at 50 Avenue B back in August. A venture called Brownstone Bar & Grill, serving "Caribbean/Southern food," was on the CB3/SLA docket for a new liquor license this month. However, this applicant has been scratched from the agenda... and based on the new "for lease" sign out front, we likely won't be seeing Brownstone here.

Before Affaire, the space was home to China 1, which neighbors really hated.

A quick look at Twist, now open on Avenue A



Bill the libertarian anarchist stopped by Twist, the new yogurt shop at 70 Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Fourth Street...

"I just sampled an organic chocolate yogurt at Twist. Excellent indeed. Jim is the proprietor. He hopes to show art made by local artists. He has a bit of work to do on the walls, but expects to have it done soon."



Sunday, September 15, 2013

Till Death Do Us Rock



Today in Tompkins Square Park, Frank Wood marries Johnny Eggz and Christa McNamee. Johnny's band is the Mighty Pragmatics. Wedding party and post-concert tonight at Otto's on East 14th Street ... with bands playing all night...

Photo and details via Steven Hirsch.





Week in Grieview


[Photo on First Avenue by Goggla]

A walk in Alphabet City in 1978 (Friday)

RIP LES Jewels (Saturday, 51 comments)

An appreciation: Star Shoe Shop (Tuesday)

The future of 181 Avenue A, aka the former Mary Help of Christians (Monday)

Avenue A 7-Eleven AC woes (Monday)

Rosie Mendez wins the Democratic primary (Wednesday)

New mural honors Tompkins Square Park (Friday)

Tompkins Square Park in 1904 (Thursday)

Prepping 100 Avenue A for demolition (Tuesday)

Out and About with Sven Furberg (Wednesday)

Bike helmets that we like (Tuesday)

Lightning! (Thursday)

A trash complaint about Taverna Kyclades (Thursday)

Picnic opens on Second Avenue (Tuesday)

12 years of Bloomy (Monday)

The Stuyvesant Stationery shop is closing on East 14th Street (Friday)

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[Photo by Gregory Patrick]

Meanwhile, at DayLife...



Part of DayLife today on Orchard Street... Per the DayLife website:

DayLife is a FREE 3-block special event that covers Orchard Street in astroturf and pushcarts, and includes the best in LES food and fashion vendors.

Photo via EVG reader Evan.

Happening now: The Joe Strummer mural is returning! The Joe Strummer mural is returning!



As we first reported on Aug. 19, workers blasted away the 10-year-old Joe Strummer mural outside Niagara on Avenue A and East Seventh Street as part of ongoing exterior renovations at 132 E. Seventh St. As promised, though, the mural was to return... and it's starting to happen right now with the original artist Dr. Revolt ...

Thanks to @gaminette for the photo!

AlphaBet Cafe back open on East 14th Street and Avenue B


[Bobby Williams]

Just noting that AlphaBet Cafe, a fine little place for an inexpensive meal, is back open ... they were closed for several days due to a gas problem, according to signs on the door.

The New York City Marble Cemetery is open until 5 today on East 2nd Street



From the EVG inbox...

The New York City Marble Cemetery invites you to visit on our Neighborhood Open Day on SUNDAY SEPT. 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Come and enjoy our peaceful green space

*Upcoming Dates*

Our Fall Open Weekend
Saturday and Sunday
Oct. 12 and 13
10 am to 5 pm
With historical displays, photos and artifacts
Visit and learn more of the history of the Cemetery and those interred here.

East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

[Updated] Memorials for LES Jewels in the East Village



There are at least four memorials now in the neighborhood for Joel Pakela, aka LES Jewels, who died this morning from what some people have said was a drug overdose. (No official word just yet.) There is a memorial now on Avenue A at East Ninth Street...









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St. Mark's Place at Second Avenue...





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... and outside the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on Avenue C...





There are also several candles lit in his honor outside Ray's on Avenue A.

Thanks to our dear friends at MoRUS for the above photos.

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Updated 9-15

Steven Hirsch shared these photos from last night on Avenue A and East Ninth Street...











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This morning around 7:30 ...


[EVG]

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP LES Jewels (35 comments)

RIP LES Jewels


[Photo from 2011 by Bob Arihood]

Word is circulating in Tompkins Square Park today that LES Jewels, a familiar figure in the neighborhood, has died. Park regulars said that Jewels, aka Joel Pakela, died as a result of a drug overdose. [Update 9-16: A cause of death has not been confirmed. There are other theories, as you can see in the comments.] Friends said that he was 43.

According to sources, Jewels was found unconscious this morning at 7:44 on Avenue A at East Ninth Street. An EMS crew tried unsuccessfully to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

His drug- and alcohol-fueled rampages along Avenue A and in Tompkins Square Park were well-documented by Bob Arihood at Neither More Nor Less.

One longtime resident recently introduced himself to Jewels ... and wasn't sure what to expect.

"He couldn't have been nicer."

Here's the last photo that we've seen of Jewels, taken Sept. 8 at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on Avenue C...


[Photo via MoRUS]