Another view from 1991

We've had a few items lately about 1991. (Such as this one.) Billy Leroy passed along the above photo from 1991 ... The future Billy's Antiques was called Manhattan Castle and Props .. as Billy noted in the photo, it was a time when cope were making frequent arrests in the middle of East Houston just west of the Bowery... and the MTA apparently didn't care if you sold MTA signs...

[Photo by Clayton Patterson, courtesy of Billy Leroy]

Reminders tonight: Memorial in Tompkins Square Park for Monica Shay

Monica Shay died on Thursday after being shot last weekend at the Pennsylvania country home she shared with her husband Paul. She was 58. Tonight at 8, her friends and loved ones will gather in Tompkins Square Park for a memorial vigil.

As The Villager noted, she and her husband Paul, who is expected to recover, were prominent neighborhood activists. "They helped the East Village squatters who took over city-owned buildings in the 1980s. They also supported the encampment that homeless people set up in Tompkins Square Park."

The memorial will be held at Seventh Street and Avenue A at the entrance to the Park.

[Photo of Monica Shay from 1990 by Clayton Patterson via The Villager]

A memorial for Lucien Bahaj

Lucien is hosting a memorial for its beloved founder, Lucien Bahaj, next Thursday (Oct. 17) at the bistro at 14 First Ave.

Patrons are asked to stop by between noon and 7 p.m. here between First Street and Second Street...



Bahaj, who opened Lucien in 1998, died in Florida on July 29. He was 74. A cause of death was not revealed.

His son Zac has been running Lucien in recent years. In writing about Bahaj's passing, Clayton Patterson remarked that Zac has "the learned etiquette and special magic required to make Lucien hum along without his father."

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Lucien Bahaj

[Updated] Inside the renovated St. Brigid's

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...and to see how far the church has come... Clayton Patterson shared these photos from a neglected church circa December 2005...

Updated 1-28

The New York Times has a piece on St. Brigid's in today's paper. The article goes into detail on the church's "daunting structural problems" and the challenges of the restoration.

A quick excerpt:

The pews were replaced and the exterior restored to resemble the original brownstone. Stained glass windows were brought from St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, which closed in 2003.

[Architect Michael F.] Doyle also restored an elaborate inscription along the top of the east wall that had been painted over in the 1960s, although there was not enough money to put the original bell back in the tower.

The parish has been merged with St. Emeric’s nearby, and the parish and the church are now known as St. Brigid and St. Emeric.

Read the whole article here.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Ailing man prevents mother-in-law from being robbed on First Avenue (The New York Post)

The art in the tree at the Cooper Square Hotel (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A panel Sunday on modern day New York street photography featuring Clayton Patterson, Matt Weber and Jake Dobkin (Nathan Kensinger Photography)

The misery of living in NYC (Runnin' Scared)

An update on SPURA project planning (BoweryBoogie)

Squirrel love in Tompkins Square Park (Nadie Se Conoce)

A comeback for Jeffrey's Meats in the Essex Street Market? (The Lo-Down)

Fifth Generation vs. the Blank Generation (Flaming Pablum)

An East Village ambassador for Japanese cuisine (The New York Times)

Inside Kenka on St. Mark's Place (Eater)

Photos from NYC's "best coffee shops" (Refinery29)

'This is elderly abuse' — Warhol star Taylor Mead lives in squalor during building's gut renovation

Taylor Mead's home life in his fifth-floor walk-up continues to be a living hell, the Post notes today.

As you may have read in The Villager or at BoweryBoogie, Ben Shaoul bought the building Mead lives in and two others on Ludlow Street for $16.5 million last summer. Mead, 88, continues to live in his rent-stabilized apartment while the rest of the building is converted to market-rate homes. (Mead has lived here for 34 years and pays $380 a month in rent.)

Per the article:

Workers hammer outside his door from 7 a.m. till the evening. Plaster falls from his walls and roaches crawl up his legs. The kitchen sink doesn’t work.

Mead’s friends suspect Shaoul wants the poet to evict himself.

“It’s going to kill him,” said Clayton Patterson, a neighborhood activist and longtime friend. “This is elderly abuse. It’s pretty Third World when you think about it.”

You can read more about the legendary Mead, an actor, writer and poet, here. (Read this feature on Mead from The Paris Review last summer here.)

Of course, history doesn't mean much to developers.

“[Shaoul] is out for profit. He doesn’t give a shit about who I am,” he said. “It’s going to be hell.”

Updated: Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2014...

                                                          ---------------------------

Lisa Julian (aka Spike or Lucretia), Tompkins Square Park regular


[Photo by Lori Der Hagopian]

                                                          ---------------------------

Rebecca Lepkoff, acclaimed street photographer


[Image via]

                                                          ---------------------------

Erdelyi Tamas, aka Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of the Ramones


[Via Brooklyn Vegan]

                                                          ---------------------------

Michael Brody, longtime East Village resident, mysterious neighbor


[Courtesy of Lili Barsha]

                                                          ---------------------------

Mike Bakaty, owner of the city's longest-running tattoo parlor

[Photo by James Maher]

                                                          ---------------------------

Hayne Suthon, owner and operator of Lucky Cheng's


[Photo by Biljana Ustic via Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Derek Lloyd, popular figure in the local theater community


[Image via PS 122]

                                                          ---------------------------

Dennis Zentek, co-founder of d.b.a.


[Photo by KM Keller via Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Akkas Ali, florist at East Village Farm and Grocery



                                                          ---------------------------

Marty Thau, music producer-manager-entrepreneur


[Thau, right, with David Johansen and Muddy Waters in the early '80s. Photo via Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Will Connell, saxophonist/composer



                                                          ---------------------------

Don Holley, father, champion of East Village schools

                                                          ---------------------------

Evelyn Dahab, author, bar owner


[Image via Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Maggie Estep, writer-poet-performance artist and all-around cool person


[Photo from October 2013 by Marissa Molnar via Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Several readers reminded us about Anne Ardolino, aka Anntelope, aka 1st Avenue rooftop pigeon lady, poet, animal rescuer, neighbor, friend …


[Photo by Clayton Patterson]

                                                          ---------------------------

Karen Kristal, matriarch of CBGB


[Photo via CBGB on Facebook]

                                                          ---------------------------

Wen Hui Ruan, father, retired garment worker


[Photo from 2006 via CBS 2]

Watch Billy Leroy throw someone into a coffin and nail it shut

Billy Leroy tells us about an independent film project that he's working on called "Don Peyote." Michael Canzoniero directs. While it started out as a small film, the production received funding... and it's turning into some much larger... it stars Dan Fogler and Anne Hathaway.

Anyway, here's a scene that features Billy (and the fellow in the German helmet is Clayton Patterson; the young woman is Billy's daughter Celina Leroy).

Here's the set-up for this scene shot outside Billy's Antiques on East Houston:

"We jump on Dan. I beat him up and throw him into a coffin and nail it shut... It's all part of a nightmare scene he has after ingesting hallucinogenic drugs. Wish I could do this to some of the yuppies that wander into Billy's."

The movie is still in production. Here's a snippet of it.

[Photos by Isak Tiner]

Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2019...

• Tim Schellenbaum



• Steven Cannon


[Image via Facebook]

• Unkle Waltie


[Photo by Steven]

• Ron Edgecombe


[Photo via Facebook]

• Susan Leelike



• Purushottam Goyal


[Photo by Steven]

• Gigi Watson


[Photo by James Maher]

• Felicia Mahmood



• Lucien Bahaj


[Photo courtesy of Clayton Patterson]

• Jonas Mekas


[Image via Facebook]

• Joe Overstreet


[Image via legacy.com]

• Leslie Sternbergh Alexander


[Leslie Sternbergh Alexander and Adam Alexander]

• Brendan Cregan


[Image via Facebook]

• Chaim Joseph



• Brian Butterick/Hattie Hathaway


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

--

Others with ties to the neighborhood who died this past year include Robert Frank ... John Giorno ... Paul Krassner... and Robert Ogden.