Photo by Bobby Williams...
The squirrel collection grows
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"I needed to switch it up. I was never able to be there as much as I should. Running fresh fish places took all of my time. Also I thought the prices were too high. I have not raised Upstate's prices since we opened [in 2011]. So Edwin and Neal's had to compete with a fish place right around the corner with better price points."
This ambitious survey runs through April 20 and will include guest lectures, performances and a panel discussion exploring Arturo Vega’s broader impact on popular culture while contextualizing his work as a visual artist.
Howl! Happening was established to honor Vega, his life and work, and his support for East Village artists, and we are particularly proud to be the second stop for the late Mexican-born artist’s U.S. museum retrospective. The exhibition features photography, collage and a number of iconic canvases from the artist’s Supermarket and Silver Dollar series (begun in the 70s); his Flags and so-called “word paintings” from Insults; and other series produced during the 80s, 90s and aughts. Of special note is his last major work, Life isn’t tragic, love is just being ignored, a mural commissioned in 2013 that hung on the corner of Prince and Elizabeth streets.
Escaping the repressive violence of an authoritarian regime under Mexico’s “perfect dictatorship” in the late 60s, Arturo Vega made his way to New York City to study English, philosophy and photography at the New School for Social Research in the early 70s.
While working on his first painting series of supermarket signs, he befriended members of the Ramones. Designing the Ramones’ ubiquitous logo based on the Great Seal of the United States, painting backdrops for their stage, and creating a lighting scheme loosely adapted from Albert Speer’s Lichtdom to enhance their effect, Vega created visual imagery that defined the transgressive aesthetic of punk rock by co-opting and questioning symbols of power.
I had started a small business representing certain natural foods, but I was going to different health-food stores around the country and trade shows and demonstrating their products. One day in 1981, I was at Greenberg’s. It was a very old school natural food store on First Avenue, between Seventh and St. Mark's Place. I was in there doing a miso demonstration and handing out samples and Frank Simons, the guy who had just bought Angelica Kitchen, walked in. I didn’t know him at the time but I had been a fan of Angelica. He and I caught each other’s eyes, to say it mildly. We got engaged and I moved from the mountains of North Carolina to New York to be with him. That was what got me here – falling in love and doing the right turn so many of us know about.
Angelica was at 42 St. Marks Place at that time. It was a small place and we had very few seats, so we had an open policy about seating. People came in and sat in any empty chair in the restaurant, whether it was a two top or a four top, so lots of connections were made that way. That was very fun. It was very community spirited. Organic wasn’t as much of an issue at that time but there were a lot of products available. That became my mission once I was in charge of the restaurant after Frank died. I really believed in the small, independent organic farmer as stewards of the land, so I was able to get on my soapbox through having Angelica Kitchen and really support the farmers.
Sadly, as a result of increased rent and operating costs combined with reduced patronage, the restaurant has been operating at a loss for over two years. Having poured all of her personal resources into the business in an attempt to sustain it, that effort has failed and she's now deeply in debt. Leslie feels a commitment to avoid having her difficulties adversely affect local farmers and small independent businesses, some of whom have been with Angelica Kitchen since the beginning.
Our goal for this fundraiser is $245,000.00. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to resuscitate Angelica Kitchen, but Leslie has many significant financial issues to deal with and would be grateful if Angelica could close with a clean slate, without financially damaging the small businesses who stood by her, some for 40 years.
It’s been too long since we last hung out together in a record-filled room talking about music, but we'll have that chance at an exciting event happening here on Sunday, March 26! Other Music has been collaborating with our friends at MoMA PS1, organizing a record fair and festival in the Long Island City museum that will be celebrating vinyl culture and the interconnecting music communities of NYC and beyond.
It’s been quite an undertaking, but we've put together a huge record market featuring over 60 of our favorite labels from around the world selling music, merchandise and much more. Add to this so many other inspirational people, with live performances inside MoMA PS1's VW Dome, thought-provoking panels and workshops, film, and plenty of other surprises.
East Village At Its Best* This Apartment is located between Ave A & B. Its a perfect size to divide into a separate bedroom and living room. It also features exposed brick, hardwood floors, high ceilings and other cute detail.
Hold on, hold on tight pic.twitter.com/q68SinvJlb
— evgrieve (@evgrieve) March 22, 2017
Name: Jennifer Brodsky
Occupation: Founder, perNYC
Location: 13th Street and Avenue B
Date: 8 pm on Monday, March 20
I moved to the neighborhood a few years ago. I lived on the Upper East Side for a bit. I lived by Union Square and in Bushwick too. I feel like what differentiates those neighborhoods to me are the stoops. By Union Square, there are no stoops. On the Upper East Side, there are stoops, but they don’t have the same feel. No one sits out there. It’s a lot of glitz and glamour. No one has the time of day for anyone.
In Bushwick, there weren’t really stoops, but you had these front porches. The area that I lived in had families who would barbecue and have a bunch of lawn chairs just sitting out there for them. Here you have the best kind of stoops. People are outside not just with family, but also alone, with friends and with strangers. It's where some of my favorite encounters happen. Like outside Raul's Candy Store, while he and his friends play dominos in the summer. We catch up and talk about how everyone is doing.
I love the architecture here. My building was built in 1910. I recently went to the map shop on Fourth Street [between 2nd Avenue and the Bowery]. I asked the lady if she had a map with what my block looked like. She pulled out one from 1876 and it was still divvied out the same way that it is now. With my apartment building, there is a tenement house in the front, but then you go through and there is a courtyard and a back building.
Other neighborhoods have square buildings. Here you have triangles, hexagons and circles. I keep an open mind, because you never know what you can find. For instance, what lies beneath the many layers of paint on my door — for now, I've found it’s a free upper-body workout to pull open that door.
Recently, on St. Patrick’s Day, I headed over to Casey Rubber Stamps, which is a great East Village staple. It’s a really small store full of rubber stamps. There’s something so fun about them. I remember when I babysat for a kid when I was younger — this little boy went crazy happy with his new stamp collection that he stamped all over the walls. So when I walked into the store, I had this flashback of that scene of stamps all over the wall.
I founded, host and produce a podcast called perNYC. Each podcast episode explores a unique NYC creation, such as a NYC event, music, production, business, store, restaurant, photography, videography, movement, merchandise, fitness, art, establishment, and more, as per the creator.
You get to hear first-hand all the details around each creation. You could think that it takes a certain type of personality, a certain type of person, or certain traits to be a creator, especially in New York, where there is so much going on and someone is trying to pound you down, while someone else is trying to keep you up. But everyone is so different.
Now my interests are focusing on street foods. Every culture in the world has a similar item that is closely related to the Empanada. I came up with Chechenitas (empanada pouch). A small, easy to eat on the go item.
I love the many different tastes from all cultures around and thought to borrow from each the essence of flavor that I love. Only issue I had with them is that there wasn't enough food inside the bread. I felt it overpowered the ingredients.