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Spotted along East Third Street.
Looking for a relaxed and joyful holiday shopping experience? Visit the East Village's very first FUNKtional Art Fair, a holiday fair of functional art for the funky at heart.
When:Sunday 12pm-9pm, December 22
Where: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden at the southwest corner of 9th St. & Avenue C.
What: A fair that features an amazing selection of seasonal gifts; Christmas wreaths & trees, holiday decorations, clothing, costumes, jewelry, housewares, leather goods, paper goods, custom millinery & children's items.
A portion of the money raised will go to La Plaza Cultural Community Garden
Find more info about the vendors here.
Composer and producer Patrick Grant creates and leads a procession with dozens of electric guitarists through the East Village, with a special stop at The Alamo, the iconic Astor Place sculpture commonly referred to as The Cube. In 2014, The Alamo will be moved from its current location to another part of the plaza. To observe this occurrence, Grant introduces new repertoire that evokes the iconic guitar music that has scored sub-genre Wild West cinema. The event will be a moving, polyphonic sound cloud layered in compelling, electric rhythms to honor the season’s axial tilt.
We payed full price, $650 each — you can have them for free, you just have to pick them up. We will even help load them into your truck. They weigh ~500# each. We used them in a show and the show will be done. You MUST pick them up Sunday night or early Monday morning at LaMama theater. Otherwise they will be chainsawed...
FYI: they are 10' plus long, so you would need a box truck, not a cargo van.
Seriously, haven't you always wanted one of these in your back yard? Or you artist loft?
Model Francesca Vuillemin is one of several lower Manhattan tastemakers who recently popped into East Village Shoe Repair to pick up shoes. Hers were pairs by Balenciaga and Miu Miu that she’d left for repairs. She estimates the kicks were worth $700.
Vuillemin had been told by the store’s proprietors many times since September that the repairs were behind schedule and had been asked to come back another time.
“The product was planned perfectly for the marketplace, including an exterior that fit in contextually with the neighborhood,” Urgo said via email. “While other developers were building family-sized residences, we planned smaller homes for this marketplace, a decision that was validated by the strong velocity of sales. Our buyers were predominately primary residents, many of whom were already committed to the East Village neighborhood and wanted to move up to this level of luxury and lifestyle.”
There is a scam artist working the area around Tompkins Square Park. A white guy in his early 40s, baldish, about 5-8, stout — dressed and looking like a perfectly average working-class type.
The first time he came up to me near my building about two months ago, pleading for help, saying he and his kids were trapped in a van that ran out of gas and he needed something like 18 or 28 dollars, I don't remember exactly.
I never do this, but that time I believed the guy, especially since he looked so desperate and even offered his wedding ring, some chain, phone and what not as a security deposit till he paid me back. I turned down his generous proposal, gave him $20 and was happy to just go home after a long day at work. Actually, I even felt good about helping the guy out.
But then yesterday, on the same block, just a couple of feet from my building, the same guy catches up with me and starts telling me the same story all over again.
I was furious, but being pregnant I didn't feel prepared to take the risk of getting into a big arguement with the guy or taking his picture. So I just interrupted him and said he had pulled his trick on me two months ago and left.
Lucy's was closed last night. No "Be back in a week" sign. Please someone tell me this isn't the end (cc: @evgrieve)
— Christopher Robbins (@ChristRobbins) December 19, 2013
Situated on a prime block at the corner of Second Avenue, DF Mavens’ flagship store will open in the spring of 2014 and showcase the brand’s award-winning line of dairy-free ice creams. The store will feature a wide range of vegan snack and beverages, including a full line of baked goods, fresh juices and coffee.
“We’re very excited to open our first dedicated storefront and plant our flag in the vibrant East Village food scene,” states Malcolm Stogo, a world-renowned ice cream consultant and founder of DF Mavens. “Our new retail outpost will allow us to bring delicious, dairy-free ice cream to a greater segment of New Yorkers who want vegan-friendly dessert options in time for the warm weather.”
DF Mavens also announces that four of its pint-sized non-dairy ice creams are now being carried in Whole Foods Markets at Union Square, Columbus Circle, Bowery and Tribeca. These flavors include: Shot of Java, New Orleans Salted Praline, Del Lago Chocolate and Key Lime Pie.
DF Mavens pint-sized offerings include 9 flavors that feature the highest quality ingredients and are categorized by soy-based, coconut-based or sugar-free varieties. Designed to taste as good as any cream-based formula, each flavor is handcrafted by Stogo himself, who has consulted on brands like Haagen Dazs, Stonyfield’s Frozen Yogurt and Colombo.
Situated in an area that is home to more than 50,000 college students, the new location will house St. John’s School of Risk Management, a key division of the University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business and a global leader in risk and insurance education and training.
The School of Risk Management contains the Kathryn & Shelby Cullom Davis Library, which comprises the world’s largest collection of risk and insurance literature, policies, and related documents, and serves as a center for study and research for students of risk management, insurance, and actuarial science around the world.
The location will also be home to The Language Connection, St. John’s intensive English language institute, and to continuing professional education and other academic programs.
According to Julie Bolcer, an M.E. spokesperson, the finding of the autopsy and toxicology investigation was that Pakela’s cause of death was “blunt injuries of head.” However, she said, “The manner of death is undetermined.”
Asked for more details — such as how many and what kind of head injuries Pakela had, and whether he got them from being assaulted or, say, falling down on the sidewalk — Bolcer said she would check. However, she subsequently called back to say she had no further information. Asked if alcohol or drugs contributed in any way to his death, Bolcer simply repeated the M.E.’s conclusion, that the cause of death was “blunt injuries of head.”
Name: Nick Sitnycky
Occupation: Owner, John’s of 12th Street
Location: 12th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave
Time: 1 pm on Monday, Dec. 16
Yesterday, Sitnycky talked about growing up on Avenue B and the early days of John's of 12th Street...
So 1972 comes around. I was a little young, 27, and I had just gotten married. One of my best friends, whose family owned Angelo’s on Mulberry Street, goes, ‘Nicky you want to buy a restaurant?’ So I go, ‘No, no, no.’ Then he tells me it’s John’s. Danny, who was John’s son, was retiring. I had also met my partner Mike, or Big Mike as they called him, Mikey two names, a few years before in ’69. So in ’72, I go to him, ‘Mike you want to buy a restaurant with me?’
Big Mike was a big guy from the South Bronx and I was a skinnier guy from the Lower East Side. I still call it the Lower East Side. When we started off in the restaurant we didn’t have any experience. Danny helped us and stayed on for a couple of months.
It was a matter of hard work. We both had other jobs. I was with Xerox corporation for almost 20 years while I had the restaurant. I was multitasking all the time. I started in sales, surprise-surprise, and then I was promoted to management and then I did international operations. And Mike was a salesman, selling in the garment district. So we were both in sales and marketing and [the restaurant business] is about people. We understood that money goes where it’s treated best from the minute someone walks in. The one thing we knew was how to be hospitable and friendly from the minute someone walked in.
When we started, Mike learned the kitchen inside and out so would never have an issue. He had a knack for the kitchen. And sure enough, a couple years later our chef broke his leg and Mike was in the kitchen for months. I started taking care of the front more, although Mike was an impresario up front — he was all over the place. We just mixed and matched and worked and worked. We worked as dishwashers, as busboys, we did everything.
This whole staff, this whole organization has tenure. We have tenure here. Our chef is almost here for 40 years now. Our waiters will be here 10 years, 20 years. Pedro’s been with me 25 years. You want to hear about an American dream story? Pedro came here as a migrant worker picking blueberries when he was 15. He was from Mexico city. He became so proficient and was such a good guy that the farmers got him a green card. He stayed there and then came to New York. We sucked him in here when he was 18 and he’s been with us ever since. Now he’s married and has two children, both in charter school. He’s an American Citizen. Talk about living the American dream.
We pursued preservation, just as Danny did. He went over all of the things from the linen to the candles. It’s a real, historic art gallery. This [below me] is 1890s, tile-by-tile hand-laid Belgian mosaic tiles. I get a little ridiculous sometimes. These walls were brought in from Ferrara, Italy, three-by-five foot slabs of one inch thick marble inlaid in terrazzo. The paintings are painted on canvas. There are city-states of Italy, there are various coats of arms, there are scenes. We preserved and maintained them. We’re like curators. We figure we’re the third generation.
This is my whole life. I have a lot of love for this place so I get emotional. We weren’t really planning on selling even though we had some very strong pursuers, big companies. We wanted to make sure that we passed it along to someone like Brett [Rasinski] who was going to be the 4th generation. Brett’s been a regular customer of ours for almost six and a half years. This is a continuation, not a transition. These are the routines, these are the hours, this is our menu. He’s a real preservationist.
I’m going to be doing with Brett what Danny did with us. He wants me to spend a lot of time with him here and it’s an open amount of time. Unfortunately, when we decided on doing this in May of this year, when Brett came back to us with an offer that we accepted, three days later my partner Mike found out he had cancer. From the end of May to July 13th, he was gone.
This is John’s. John’s is what is disappearing in New York, not only in this area. John’s is part of New York City, so we’re very careful to keep things the same. These traditions are very important. There’s a history; there’s a legacy.
Eric Drooker, native NY street artist, will be giving a musical slide lecture about growing up in Lower Manhattan.
Also performing will be anarcho-punk veteran from Drooker's childhood neighborhood, Dr. Stza Crack, playing the songs of Leftöver Crack, Choking Victim and Star Fucking Hipsters amongst others. Lauren Oakes on vocals, guitar & harmonica will be accompanying him!
Eric Drooker is a painter, graphic novelist, and third-generation New Yorker, born on East End Avenue. While his graphics and street posters are a familiar site in the global street art movement, his paintings are familiar in the mainstream as well, and have appeared on dozens of covers of The New Yorker.
The Student Residence offers apartment-style housing for 178 students. Units range in size to accommodate from three to five people, with the majority of the apartments being two bedroom units shared by four people. Each unit contains a bathroom, common living area, and kitchenette. The building amenities include a study room, laundry room, the Residence Hall Office, and the Menschel Room.
Giovanni said...
Apparently the FAA will have to change their flight patterns now that the big red beacon on Houston Street is going dark. I just hope none of the airplanes trying to find NYC gets lost in the darkness....
When the plaque went up on the East Village building saying that it was where Allen Ginsberg once lived, the two young men who now occupy the poet's old apartment had only this to say:
Who was he?
Name: Nick Sitnycky
Occupation: Owner, John’s of 12th Street
Location: 12th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave
Time: 1 pm on Monday, Dec. 16
I was born in Brooklyn, in Williamsburg when no one wanted to be in Williamsburg. When I was 9 years old, my parents moved over to Avenue B between 5th and 6th. That was 1958. We moved in 1968 to 145 Second Avenue.
I go back to 1958. Everyone tries to be cool and tells me, ‘Oh I remember the Fillmore East.’ I say, ‘The Fillmore East was a latecomer. It was the Loew’s Commodore.’ When we were kids we’d hang around Avenue B and C. There were little candy stores all over and they’d sell 1-cent chocolates, along with 5-cent sodas. There was Gem Spa, there were used comic book stores on Avenue C. You’d go in and you could buy a used comic book for a penny or two pennies. You’d walk in and it would look like a warehouse.
All us kids would be standing around on corners. And you’d actually be doo-wopping on the street, doo-wop music, you’d harmonize. We were wearing our leather jackets with the stars on it, that was cool. You’d have your groups and then you’d go walk down certain blocks you couldn’t walk down, just because. You’d run away and they’d chase you. It was like cowboys and Indians.
It was almost ethnic by block. You’d have an Italian block, an Irish block, a Puerto Rican block, a Ukrainian block, a Polish block. First Avenue was all Italian stores — it was Italian or it was Kosher. There would be Kosher stores that only sold butter and eggs. There would be Italian butchers and Italian produce stores, fish stores, little butchers on the side streets, Kosher butchers and Italian butchers. There were all these movie houses. All of us kids would be playing basketball and football in Tompkins Square Park. We’d roller-skate around the circle. If you wanted to play baseball you’d go over the bridge on the FDR drive and play in the park along the river.
There weren’t many restaurants around then. It was either the Chinese restaurant or John’s. There was Sonny’s pizzeria around the corner where the kids would go, where Cacio e Pepe is now. Sonny was married to John’s daughter. So when I finished grammar school, my family came to John’s for dinner. In 1962, I had my graduation party from high school at John’s. Then I went to St. John’s and graduated with an economics degree in 1966, and where did I have my graduation dinner, in John’s restaurant. I got my masters at Adelphi in ’68 and we had our dinner at John’s.
John’s is an institution. John Pucciatti came from the province of Umbria, from the little medieval village of Bevagna, between Spoleto and Assisi. My wife and I actually went there. He opened this restaurant 105 years ago, in 1908. The restaurant was just the front room and he was the chef and his wife, known as ‘Momma John,’ helped him.
When prohibition came 10 years later, this became a speakeasy. The whole second floor of the building was the speakeasy. People would sit and eat and then the people who knew would ask for ‘dessert upstairs.’ They’d go through from the restaurant. You can see the outline of a door that they sealed. Our back room was the backyard and Momma John was the brewmaster. She actually made her own hooch. There was a little shack and in there was a still and in the basement she made her wine. Then she had a pulley system to get the liquor up to the second floor because they never wanted a drop of liquor in the restaurant, so whenever they got raided there was never a violation.
Remember, this was the time of "Boardwalk Empire." Joe the Boss Masseria was a real guy and a real friend of John’s. And Lucky Luciano was down here also in the neighborhood, so they would always be around here. And then there was the other side. I’d guess you’d call John a progressive because he was a very, very socialist-minded individual. There were a lot of meetings here. There were guys like Carlo Tresca, who was a real firebrand. And one day they gunned him down [on 13th Street and 5th Avenue]. So you had two sides, the anarchists and the Mafia, that hated each other. But they were all here in John’s.