New York City, 1980s. Dog lives an unassuming life among the bustle of the East Village. Feeling lonely, he orders Robot from a TV ad. Once assembled, Robot instantly becomes Dog's most steadfast friend. Together, they explore the city, rollerskating and roaming to a near-constant thrum of Earth, Wind, & Fire's "September."
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Films we want to see: 'Robot Dreams' with a story of friendship in the 1980s East Village
Friday, March 15, 2024
Friday's opening shot
Thursday, January 11, 2024
Thursday's parting shot
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Patis Bakery bringing the bread to Broadway
Saturday, January 28, 2023
RIP Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine 1949-2023
— R.E.M. HQ (@remhq) January 29, 2023
"I've lost a hero.... You introduced me to a world that flipped my life upside down. I am forever grateful." - Michael Stipe pic.twitter.com/csmxXhKPht
Heartbroken and stunned to hear of the passing of Tom Verlaine. What an inspiration to so many guitarists, of which I was one. Brilliantly melodic, intense, orchestral, and groundbreaking. Thank you, Tom. R.I.P. 💔https://t.co/K8GVYEew6E
— Richard Barone (@RichardBarone) January 28, 2023
listened to Marquee Moon 1000 times. And I mean LISTENED, sitting still, lights down low taking it all in. awe and wonder every time. Will listen 1000 more. Tom Verlaine is one of the greatest rock musicians ever. He effected the way John and I play immeasurably. Fly on Tom.
— Flea (@flea333) January 29, 2023
No. Not Tom Verlaine. 💔
— Garbage (@garbage) January 28, 2023
such a fucking drag RIP Tom Verlaine. a wonderful goddamn curmudgeon and a unique talent. he will be sorely missed. pic.twitter.com/TzeTmayRCA
— Byron Coley (@ByronColey1) January 29, 2023
Beautifully lyrical guitarist, underrated vocalist. Television made a new kind of music and inspired new kinds of music. Marquee Moon is a perfect record. Requiescat.
— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) January 28, 2023
🎈https://t.co/uxt7IMz2rO
Playing this one loud for Tom Verlaine
— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) January 28, 2023
pic.twitter.com/q8VfDOgUcO
More 2023 fretted heartbreak 💔. One of the GREAT Punk lead stylists. Tom Verlaine was a True Downtown HERO. Saddened & bummed to hear it.
— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) January 28, 2023
Tom Verlaine’s playing meant the world to me. If I ever played anything that sounded like him I was happy. He set me on my path as a guitarist, thank you Tom. pic.twitter.com/wMTvkxuy04
— Will Sergeant (@Will_Fuzz) January 28, 2023
i didn't know him personally, but i felt that tom verlaine's music somehow knew me, if that makes any sense. the way he played guitar, the words he sang, the way he sang them, all resonated with me in a very natural and deep way. thank you for all the happy hours of listening TV pic.twitter.com/lm0892tGj7
— matthew caws (@nadasurf) January 29, 2023
A true original. No one played guitar like Tom Verlaine before or since. Sat crossed legged on the floor on his side of the stage in Roskilde as he played in Patti Smith’s band and that was as close to perfection as you can get. A sad sad day. Rest in Peace Tom 🥲 pic.twitter.com/445yrvH6m8
— Simon Raymonde (@mrsimonraymonde) January 28, 2023
Devastated by this news. Tom Verlaine was a true great. His role in our culture and straight up awesomeness on the electric guitar was completely legendary. Name 10 minutes of music as good as Marquee Moon. You can’t. It’s perfect. Rest in peace Tom x https://t.co/6HAwg5k9PS
— stuart braithwaite (@plasmatron) January 28, 2023
— Debbie Harry/BLONDIE (@BlondieOfficial) January 28, 2023
Peace and love, Tom Verlaine. 💔 pic.twitter.com/zewZz0sJQn
— Susanna Hoffs (@SusannaHoffs) January 28, 2023
Went by the book stalls outside Strand yesterday thinking I’d see you as usual, have a smoke, talk about rare poetry finds for a couple of hours, downtown NYC racing by our slow meditations on music, writing - gonna miss you Tom. TV Rest In Peace.
— Thurston Moore (@nowjazznow) January 28, 2023
Definitely feeling weird about the idea of a New York where you might not bump into Tom Verlaine browsing books outside the Strand. Something ended right here.
— Bryan Waterman (@_waterman) January 29, 2023
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
RIP Peter Schjeldahl
Peter Schjeldahl, a longtime resident of St. Mark's Place and "a half-century-long prose stylist of New York City's art scene," died on Friday of lung cancer, his daughter Ada Calhoun announced. He was 80.My father, Peter Schjeldahl, passed away today peacefully of lung cancer. He will be buried privately. In March there will be a memorial service honoring his life and work. My mother and I are grateful for all the messages and will be in touch when we can. pic.twitter.com/RVyrIkblWs
— Ada Calhoun (@adacalhoun) October 21, 2022
Peter was a man of well-developed opinions, on art and much else. He was someone who, after being lost for a time, knew some things about survival. We met more than twenty years ago. I was looking to hire a full-time art critic. I’d read him for years in the Village Voice. And a voice is what he always had: distinct, clear, funny. A poet’s voice — epigrammatic, nothing wasted.
We got together at the office on a Saturday in late summer. Someone had shut off the building’s air-conditioning. Peter was pale, rivulets of sweat running down his face. I asked about an empty interval of time on his résumé. "Well, I was a falling-down drunk back then. Then I fixed that." He was harder on himself than he would be on any artist.Don’t misunderstand: in the many years of his writing for The New Yorker, Peter was perfectly willing to give a bad show a bad review, and there were some artists he was just never going to love — Turner and Bacon among them — but he was openhearted, he knew how to praise critically, and, to the end, he was receptive to new things, new artists. ... He took his work seriously — despite the cascades of self-deprecation, there were times when I think he knew how good he was — but he was never self-serious. He once won a grant to write a memoir. He used the money to buy a tractor.
When Peter got the news of his cancer — a cancer that he and his doctors kept at bay for longer than anyone imagined possible — Ada asked him if he wanted to revisit Rome or Paris. "Nah," he said. "Maybe a ballgame." And Ada arranged it, Peter wrote, "with family and friends: Mets versus Braves, at Citi Field. Glorious. Grandson Oliver caught a T-shirt from the mid-game T-shirt cannon. Odds of that: several thousand to one."Photos from June by Stacie Joy
Monday, October 10, 2022
Jeremiah Moss to discuss 'Feral City' at Book Club Thursday night
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Week in Grieview
Monday, June 27, 2022
Brooklyn Roasting Company opens a cafe inside the Strand
Friday, June 17, 2022
At the book party for Ada Calhoun's 'Also a Poet'
"Also a Poet" began as Calhoun's attempt to finish what her dazzling, absent-minded father couldn't: "to do something noble and to win." But it turned into something much less dutiful, and more interesting, a story about both the impossibility of reconstructing another person's life and the importance of trying — and an investigation of the strained, complicated relationship between a creative father and daughter.
Thursday, July 1, 2021
A conversation with Lilly Dancyger, author of the East Village memoir 'Negative Space'
Saturday, March 20, 2021
EVG Etc.: NYC businesses struggling with anti-Asian violence; new vendor replacing the Hester Street Fair
• Business owners struggle with unrelenting anti-Asian violence in NYC (Eater)
• Scenes from the vigil against anti-Asian racism at Union Square (Gothamist)
• A look at the NYC jobs market amid the pandemic (The City)
• Convicted felon Steve Croman receives two-year extension to pay off his remaining $2 million restitution to tenants (The Real Deal)
Sunday, November 15, 2020
EVG Etc.: Looking for holiday volunteers; Remembering Aldo Tambellin
Saturday, October 24, 2020
EVG Etc.: The Strand says its cash reserves are depleted, issues plea for business
• Manhattan's median asking rent fell below $3,000 — to $2,990 — for the first time since 2011 (Streeteasy)
• The East Village is well-represented in this listicle of the city's best Vietnamese restaurants (Eater)
• Catching up with the Mosaic Man (B&B)
• Video shows a male Karen — aka "Daren" — being aggressive on Astor Place after refusing to wear a mask (The Daily Dot)
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Updating: Coronavirus-related closures and suspensions in the East Village
[Sanitizer shelves at Rite Aid on 1st Avenue via Stacie Joy]
Here's the start of a list (March 13) of coronavirus-related closures or suspended activities in the East Village. We'll continue to update as more announcements are made. Send any relevant info to this email. Find the bars-restaurants listing at this link.
Updated 5 a.m. 3/16: Mayor de Blasio has announced that restaurants, bars and cafes will only be allowed to serve only take-out and delivery starting 9 a.m. on 3/17.
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• The Cooper Union Library is now closed through March 22.
• The the 14th Street Y is now closed for at least a week.
• The Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St., is closed indefinitely. More info here.
• The Pyramid Club, 101 Avenue A, is closed until further notice.
• Howl! Happening, 6 E. First St., is closed until further notice.
• The Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave., has suspended all screenings for the rest of March, effective immediately.
• New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. Fourth St., is suspending all public programming for 31 days, effective immediately.
• All public events and performances of shows at La MaMa are suspended as of tomorrow (March 13) until further notice.
• Bowery Ballroom has is rescheduling its slate of shows through the end of the month.
• Webster Hall on 11th Street is closed until further notice.
• Mercury Lounge on East Houston is rescheduling its slate of shows though March.
• The annual Zoroastrian Fire Jumping Event, set to take place March 17 in Sarah Roosevelt Park, has been cancelled this year.
• The Swiss Institute on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place exhibitions has put a hold on all public programs and education workshops effective immediately.
• The Ukrainian Museum on Sixth Street is closing its galleries and discontinuing all programs until further notice.
• Events at the Third Street Music School are currently postponed.
• Nublu and Nublu Classic on Avenue C are closed for the weekend.
• The Bhakti Center at 25 First Ave. has suspended all public events, including weekly yoga classes and all other workshops, until March 27.
• Fun City Tattoo on St. Mark's Place is now closed through March 28.
• Alongside Abrons Arts Center, the East Village Dance Project has suspended group classes until at least March 29. They're experimenting now with holding virtual sessions.
• Academy Records at 415 12th St. closes indefinitely after 3/15. They'll still be selling records via Instagram and Discogs.
• Mast Books at 72 Avenue A is closed for now.
[Photo by Steven]
• Spark Pretty, 333 E. Ninth St.
• City Fun Shop, 45 First Ave.
• The Strand, 828 Broadway
• Exit9 Gift Emporium, 51 Avenue A
• Downtown Yarns, 45 Avenue A
• Turntable Lab, 84 E. 10th St. (You can shop online there!)
Friday, February 7, 2020
EVG etc.: Mokyo debuts on St. Mark's Place; The Strand expands to the UWS
[Seeing double on 7th via Derek Berg]
• Concerns mount over the hotel special permit plan below Union Square (amNewYork)
• Some of Steve Croman's tenants still have chronic issues with their apartments (Gothamist)
• Details on chef Kyungmin Kay Hyun’s new restaurant Mokyo on St. Mark's Place (Eater and Grub Street ... previously on EVG)
• The Strand is opening an outpost on the UWS (Westside Rag)
• Affordable housing lottery underway for this Essex Crossing building (The Lo-Down)
• More cities and states are saying no to cashless shops (NPR ... previously on EVG)
• NYCHA's 'RAD' plan (The City)
• Look ‘n Lick, a site-specific collaborative installation, continues at mh Project NYC, 140-142 Second Ave. — open Saturday and Sunday 2-6 p.m. (Official site)
• See "Casablanca" on Valentine's Day in the big auditorium at City Cinemas on Second Avenue and 12th Street Street (Official site)
• RIP Ivan Kral (Dangerous Minds) ... and Andy Gill (NPR)
• Patti Smith helps vandalized Portland, Ore. book shop (The Oregonian — h/t Daniel!)
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Week in Grieview
[When it rained every day last week via Derek Berg]
Posts from this past week included...
RIP Susan Leelike (Wednesday)
Police say these 4 suspects beat and robbed a man for $1 on 3rd and C (Wednesday)
200 new trees will grow in the East Village (Monday)
Details on the preservation and rehabilitation of 243 affordable housing units in the East Village (Tuesday)
Photos from Halloween night along Avenue B (Friday)
After 10 days, Bertie is found alive and well on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)
Pols call on Parks Department to save local community gardens at risk over new licensing agreement (Friday)
After Basquiat: the next exhibition coming to the Brant Foundation on 6th Street (Friday)
Squall Screaming, new work by peter radley (Thursday)
Have questions or concerns about the new Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital on 2nd Avenue? (Tuesday)
NYPD looking for suspect who tried to force his way into woman's apartment near 7th and A (Tuesday)
Kent takes over Vanessa's Dumpling House on 14th Street (Monday)
A Halloween-themed NY See (Thursday)
Hot Kitchen closes on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)
[A 5th Street scene via riachung00]
Joseph C. Sauer Park closed now for year-long renovation (Monday)
B Bar & Grill is still open (Tuesday)
Yakiniku West looking to reopen soon on 9th Street (Tuesday)
Looking for information on a hit-and-run (Thursday)
Your chance to own a meat grinder and commercial juicer from the former St. Mark's Market (Thursday)
The Caswell-Massey pop-up shop has officially popped up on the Bowery (Wednesday)
A look at the incoming Williamsburg Pizza on 14th Street (Monday)
The Wild Son is on the gate (Thursday)
Steamy Hallows, the Harry Potter-themed coffee shop on 6th Street, closes after Halloween (Wednesday)
So long Dean & Deluca (Monday)
Man caught with a brick in the backyard of the home linked to David Schwimmer on Sixth Street (Sunday)
Daytripper has not been open lately (Monday)
... and the new cold-weather gear has arrived at Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...
[Photo by Steven]
In other merchandising news, the Strand has a new hoodie available ... and the B&H Dairy t-shirts are back in stock.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Christmas comes early on Avenue A with filming for the new Netflix series 'Dash & Lily'
[Top 2 photos by @Jason_Chatfield]
Crews were out today along Avenue A and Third Street shooting scenes for "Dash & Lily," an eight-episode holiday romantic comedy series set for Netflix in 2020. (The show is based on the young-adult book series "Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares" from authors Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.)
Two Boots served as the location for the shoot this morning...
And given the holiday theme... Third Street was dressed with a Christmas tree stand... As Cáit O'Riordan, who shared this photo, joked on Twitter: "Ah! I thought I’d blacked out and missed Halloween."
Expect to see more of "Dash & Lily" around the neighborhood... they'll be filming along here again tomorrow... and there are posted notices on other streets, including 12th Street near the Strand.
You can read this article for more background on the series, which stars Austin Abrams and Midori Francis.