Just a few scenes at the Loisaida Festival today

A few moments from the 25th anniversary of the Loisaida Festival today on Avenue C... via Jacob Anderson ... always one of the best street festivals around...

Ivy Irizarry-Rivera, right, of Ivy Jewel, was one of the few vendors based in the neighborhood... (Many of the other vendors were from the outer boroughs, according to festival officials...)

Above, Sixth Street resident David Joffe gives a demonstration of one of his trinkets for sale...

Avenue C gold rush

During the Loisaida Festival today... photo by Bobby Williams...

Reader report: Fire on Avenue C yesterday

We heard reports of a fire yesterday afternoon on Avenue C... a reader passed along these photos with some details...

Just before 4 p.m. yesterday, the FDNY responded to a report of a fire at 56 Avenue C near East Fourth Street ...Per the reader: "Smoke was pouring onto Avenue C for over an hour and a big crowd gathered. I feel badly for any building residents or neighbors who will return home wondering why their homes are water logged and/or smelling of smoke."

We haven't heard the official cause of the fire. A new cafe called Bikinis is slated to open in one of the retail spaces at 56 Avenue C, which is the former Nublu Records office.

Do you have any further information on what happened here? Let us know via the EV Grieve email

[Updated] In case you were going to go look at those baby tigers today...

[Photo by BB]

It's closed, via Matt LES_Miserable ... As Gothamist pointed out on Friday, two five-month-old female Bengals (Sonia and Tanya) were part of Norwegian artist Bjarn Melgaard's "Ideal Pole" exhibit at the Ramiken Crucible gallery on Grand Street.

[Katie Sokoler/Gothamist]

No word on why the exhibit is closed. Or if the tigers will be back. They were scheduled to be there until June 3. Gothamist wrote, "We've reached out to the Humane Society of the U.S. to find out what the rules are about this sort of thing, because that cage looks too small to us."

Updated 3:31 p.m.:

Gothamist received a statement from the Human Society of the United States. Part of the statement:

The baby tigers on display at the Ramiken Crucible gallery were prematurely removed from their mothers, transported to New York from a game farm in Ohio that has been cited for failing to meet minimum standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and are confined to a tiny barren cage inside an art gallery.

Week in Grieview

[Toys for sale on Avenue C today]

Water store opening on East 10th Street (Monday)

Searching for the loudest block in the East Village (Friday)

Development lot for sale on Avenue D (Monday)

No Astor Place is an island (Tuesday)

The smallest art gallery in the East Village? (Wednesday)

Iglesia Pentecostal Sarepta cut in half for now on East Sixth Street (Monday)

Union Market update (Wednesday)

A former bank branch is becoming a Duane Reade (Friday)

Bistro Cafe & Grill opens (Tuesday)

From farm to sidewalk (Saturday)

Why there's a dining room set in the middle of Avenue B

Crews arrived early this morning for a shoot on 10th Street and Avenue B... a crew member said it's a short film titled "1956" ...

The NYPD is redirecting traffic on Avenue B ... several motorists have been grumbling ... (Avenue C is closed between Sixth Street and 12th Street for the Loisaida Festival ... so apparently driving and parking is a bit of a hassle for the time being. More of a hassle than usual...)

Anyway! Here's the street set...

...and as is customary, someone needs to be passed out asleep on the film set...

Smile

The Penistrator strikes a Banana Republic ad on First Avenue near 12th Street...

25th anniversary of the Loisaida Festival is today

Starts at noon on Avenue C, between 12th Street and Sixth Street... The Festival website is here.


Find some previous EVG coverage of the Festival here.

Rain in the almost summertime

By Bobby Williams.

An almost summer day in Washington Square Park

OK, OK... it feels like summer...

By Bobby Williams.

Today in Tompkins Square Park

Photo by Bobby Williams.

The KISS Army expands

East First Street at Houston. Fleet Week.

5th annual Bike Noise show tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park

Via the EV Grieve inbox...

+ FREE + ALL AGES + PUNK + BIKES +
Sliding Scale Productions Presents

Swaggerin' Growlers
Wombat in Combat
The Will
Wood Spider
and
Team Spider

Show starts at 2.

And some Wombat in Combat from the Park in summer 2010 to warm you up...

Noted

Mayor Bloomberg owns 11 homes. (Capital NY)

Today in photos of a pile of raw chicken on Avenue B

From farm to sidewalk? Several readers have noted this at East Third Street. Via EVG reader Steven...

Given the temperature, the chicken should be ready to turn in about 15 minutes.

Cat found!

Nice to see a cat found instead of lost...

A youngster in the trees

Earlier today in Tompkins Square Park. Photos by Bobby Williams.

The next stop is...

Heaven 17 with "We Live So Fast" circa 1983...

Have fun whatever you're doing this weekend. We'll see you back in here in, oh, an hour or two.

Beer bard back with 'Light or Dark' at McSorley's

The Daily News has a feature today on Geoffrey Bartholomew, the poet bartender at McSorley's since 1972.

Bartholomew, who took writing classes at City College where his teachers included Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller, just published his second collection of poems, titled "Light or Dark."

Here's a sampling via the News:

from “Restaurant Inspection”

They come in all shapes & sizes

both guys and gals

thermometers and test strips

eyeballing it all

protecting your health

The violation reads:

I did see 9/10 live flies

Well, effing bully for you

but at $100 a fly

that’s an even grand

On Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Bartholomew and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright will be give a reading at McSorley's.

You can find the McSorley's Poems website here.

The tattoo-piercings-smoking-accessories awning war is on!

Yesterday, workers installed a new awning/sign for Kulture on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

[Photo via EVG reader Anna C.]

And today...

Meanwhile, almost directly across the street...

Hmm. Tough call. Will have to see these at night to be a favorite.