Thursday, January 31, 2013

Tonight: Lower East Side Unity Rally against gun violence

From the EV Grieve inbox...


Tonight at 5:30, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer will lead Lower East Side residents in a solidarity march against gun violence. There have been at least five major shootings in the Lower East Side since July of 2012 – and the most recent on January 4th resulted in the death of Raphael Ward, a local high school student.

Who: Manhattan Borough President Stringer, Arlene Delgado, the mother of Raphael Ward, other elected officials, LES community members, youths who have experienced violence, residents of Community Board 3, friends and family of victims.

When: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 5:30pm

Where: Assemble at Avenue D at East 6th Street, marching to Columbia Street and Delancey Street

Last night for Second on Second

As we first reported on Jan. 7, Second on Second, the 10-year-old karaoke bar at 27 Second Ave., is closing this month.

The farewell party is tonight... (which we have already noted)...


Previously on EV Grieve:
Second on Second sets farewell party

Claim: Second on Second closing this month on Second Avenue

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

RIP Butch Morris


There's a small memorial outside 219 E. Seventh St., where Butch Morris lived. As you may have heard, Morris — the innovative jazz musician and conductor — died yesterday after a reported battle with lung cancer. He was 65.

The New York Times talks about his collective improvisation, which he called "conduction." Per Ben Ratliff's feature obituary today:

He introduced this concept in 1985 and at first met resistance from musicians who were not willing to learn the vocabulary and respond to the signals; he was often in a position of asking artists to reorient themselves to his imagination and make something new out of familiar materials. But he demanded to be taken seriously, and he was. After 10 years he had made enough recordings to release “Testament,” a well-received 10-disc set of his work. After 20, he had become an internationally admired creative force, presenting conductions at concert halls worldwide and maintaining regular workshops and performances at the East Village spaces Nublu, Lucky Cheng’s and the Stone.



Dave on 7th, who took the photos, recalls having drinks with Morris on several occasions.

"Very sweet and exactly as you'd want a guy like him to be."

There are tributes at The New Yorker ... NPR and The New York Times ...


Ray's 80th birthday celebration — now in video!

Earlier today we posted photos from Ray's 80th birthday bash last night at Ray's Candy Store.

Now! Thanks to Slum Goddess, there is video... a lot of video... so head right over here to watch Miss Bunny Buxom, Jo “Boobs” Weldon, Miss Little Motown and Gal Friday... (Pervs!) Oh, kinda NSFW.

And happy birthday, Ray. Nice to see such a big smile from him.

A note to Con Ed from a small East Village restaurant


Our friends at The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space passed along this photo from today outside Matilda ... The Tuscan-Mexican restaurant on East 11th Street at Avenue C was one of the many businesses in the neighborhood to suffer extensive damage from the Sandy surge... (Find a video reminder here of 11th and C from Oct. 29.)

The Con Ed form letter points out that they are "not responsible for property damage or other losses," etc.

To which the folks at Matilda respond, "Shame on you Con Edison, after what you charge us small businesses!!!"

'No 7-Eleven' movement goes global with BBC report


The BBC is the latest media outlet to report on the growing "No 7-Eleven" movement in the neighborhood... (You can watch the Eyewitness News piece here.)

"The BBC spent a day and a night in the community to find out more." You can't embed the video, so you'll have to head over to the BBC site to watch the segment.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] More from the anti-7-Eleven front on Avenue A and East 11th Street

Avenue A's anti-7-Eleven campaign now includes arsenal of 20,000 stickers

Empire of the fog


A photogenic morning, in general... this shot from the East Village comes via @stevemotts

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village. Editor's note: Given the frigid temperatures last week, we arranged to do this one indoors.


By James Maher

Name: Paul Kostabi
Occupation: Musician, Artist, Producer
Location: 5th Street Between 2nd and 3rd
Time: 10:45 on Friday, Jan. 25

I was born in California and I moved here in 1984. I was 21, fresh out of high school and a college dropout. Music and art brought me here. I had sort of a music career in Los Angeles with a group called Youth Gone Mad and I came out here to chase the music dream. I landed on Rivington Street and opened a rehearsal studio since there were a lot of bands. It worked well and so I got another apartment on Ludlow street.

When I came here it was to play punk rock music and I was sort of shocked when I went to CBGB the first time. In LA, we had 2,000 kids at a show, sometimes 3,000, with helicopters in the sky and riots and all of this crazy stuff that I wanted to escape. So I came to New York and expected it to be bigger. But it wasn’t. It was very tiny. There were like 40 punks at CBGB, but they were important. It meant something. I felt like it had to be here because this is where the important stuff happened.

When I first got here I was like shit, there were like real nutcases walking around, like guys making sounds and hippies with long hair and grey beards and I was like, ‘Oh god, I don’t ever want to ever be that guy,’ but now I feel like I’m almost there. Oh god, I could get there.

On the Bowery we had the winos. It was their own doing or undoing. You’d just walk down the street and you’d have to step over people that were sleeping and passed out all night, with bottles of Thunderbird and Ripple. It had a very Bukowski type of feel to it. Saturday night was a big party because in New York you weren’t allowed to buy alcohol on Sundays and so they all stocked up. Sunday morning was incredible. The winos were all out and they all had their last take-homes from the night before. That was the Bowery and the Bowery Bums. Who would have thought a $200 million building would pop up next to the White House Hotel?

It was wild at the time. There were a lot of bands and a lot of groups. I was playing with them, starting a recording studio and recording them, and kind of discovering bands. One of the bands I was on was White Zombie in ‘85. In California, in the early 80s in the punk world, everyone was doing everything themselves. When I came to New York, even though New York gets credit for doing that, I didn’t notice that. Bands weren’t putting out their own records yet. But the East Village scene was doing that.

Fortunately, I have a music production career and I play in bands and have an art career. I’m still finding bands and producing them. I found this band called Sacco that I’m trying to sign to one of these uptown labels. I’m still in a band called The Damn Kids and I play all the time and it’s joyous. I joined this band in 1988 or ‘89. It’s the people I’ve been with for almost as long as I’ve been here. They were called Hammerbrain and part of the Tompkins Square Riot festivals. We played last [Thursday] night on the RBar on the Bowery.

My art is like a daily diary and past experiences. A lot of it is spontaneous. Now I’m doing these paintings about Hurricane Sandy that kind of destroyed my small place upstate. I’m doing switch paintings that are done with a bamboo branch. I cut one of those, dip it in paint, and literally whip the paintings. It’s flood energy and I’m painting on things that were destroyed in the flood. It’s a switch in style for me. Instead of the figurative expressionism, it’s abstract, although they’re kind of controlled. It’s a disaster series that I’m trying to turn into a beautiful show. The show’s opening on Feb 1 in Pennsylvania.

We used to always paint on the street all the time but you don’t see it anymore. It was good energy. Weather permitting I still do it all the time. The mural on the street last year was for the launch of the company called Bad Things. I’m making plastic device covers with them and the launch was in Colorado but I did the mural here and shipped it out for the event.

I’m at the point of saying, “Made in the East Village” for the covers. That’s where I got all of the inspiration. 30 years later, I go all over the world and travel and it’s sort of an East Village world. It’s influenced the globe. The world’s kind of more like the East Village than the East Village is now.
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Foggy with a chance of a photo op


This morning via Bobby Williams.

Ray turns 80, and makes new friends


Last night, a few friends and neighbors gathered at Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A to celebrate the proprietor's 80th birthday. Per tradition, there was entertainment. Given the milestone birthday, organizers decided to up the ante and hire four entertainers... so last night, Miss Bunny Buxom, Jo “Boobs” Weldon, Miss Little Motown and Gal Friday took to Ray's for... this...






As we've written before, the annual birthday cheer is always a boost to Ray's spirits, a brief break from the 24/7 grind of the store and reminder how much people appreciate him...


-----

Thanks to Shawn Chittle for the photos. Find more photos (and in color!) from last night at Neighborhoodr.

[Neighborhoodr]

Oh, and the cake was from Veniero’s ...

There are more photos on the Ray's Candy Store Facebook page... like this one...


For previous birthday celebration photos, you can visit Bob Arihood's Neither More Nor Less for 2010 ... and 2009...

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe has a 2-story screen to watch the Super Bowl

As you may have heard, the Super Bowl is Sunday ... anyway, passing this along... part of an events email from the folks at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

On Sunday, join us for a Super Bowl Party with pizza, snacks and drink specials. Watch the Baltimore Ravens battle the San Francisco 49ers on our two-story screen (the biggest screen on the Lower East Side!) $7 tix include free food.

Please note that use of a vintage Sports Illustrated cover of the 49ers does not imply any endorsement in the game.

The Ramones and Television back on the Bowery, sort of

A reader asked if we had heard about a release date for "CBGB," the movie (biopic?) about Hilly Kristal and the rise of his club ... filmed last summer in Savannah, Ga., which subbed for the Bowery of the 1970s... crews replicated the inside of the bar in Savannah's Meddin Studios, where all the interior shots took place.

As far as we know, the film doesn't have a release date just yet for 2013.

Meanwhile, in looking at the production company's website, we did spot a few teaser stills from the film, including:

Merv Ferguson (Donal Logue) and Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman) ...


... and the film's version of Television...


... and the Ramones...

[Click on images to enlarge]

According to an article in Rolling Stone last summer, "To maintain authenticity throughout the film, [the filmmakers] exhaustively researched other CBGB regulars, and consulted frequently with Television's Tom Verlaine, the Voidoids' Richard Hell and Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz." Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys also has a cameo in the movie as a cab driver who hates the punk scene.

So, any plans on seeing the movie?

Previously.

Pearl Diner still closed, but there's a good sign

Late December, we noticed that the classic 50-year-old (plus) Pearl Diner on the fringes of the Financial District was closed. No sign... or sign of life. A casualty of Sandy.

However, on Monday, a reader noted that a "coming soon" was up now in the front window. We took a look...




Centre-fuge Public Art Project returns for second year; Cycle 7 debuts next month

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[March 2012]

Centre-fuge Public Art Project is proud to announce the continuation of murals on the trailer at First Street and First Avenue. Cycle 7 is the first installation of art in the new year.

In mid-2011 a drab, gray trailer, serving as a temporary office for workers on the 2nd Avenue subway line, popped up on the South side of First Street. For two years now Centre-fuge Public Art Project transforms the DOT trailer into a rotating street gallery. Artists create work on all visible sides of the structure with the art changing every other month. Anyone can propose an idea for work on the trailer.

The goal of Centre-fuge is not only to re-beautify an incredible block, but also to encourage the community to express itself in a public forum. With the closure of half of Houston Street, making underground way for the 2nd Avenue Subway line, the ever-growing presence of construction makes the area feel less like a neighborhood full of individuals and more like a work site full of barricades and jackhammers. Centre-fuge attempts to combat this effect. The project is dedicated in memory of friend, creator and Lower East Side neighbor, Mike Hamm.

Artists represented in Centre-fuge, Cycle 7 are Hellbent, Joe Iurato, Joseph Meloy, Matthew Denton Burrows, Nicholai Khan and Yuki. For more information on each artist, go to centre-fuge.tumblr.com/artist-bios. The recreation of Mike Hamm’s work is permanently installed on the eastern face of the trailer. A new Mike Hamm piece will be installed on the eastern face in April.

The seventh installation at Centre-fuge will be on view from February 10th until April 11th, 2013.

For more details, visit the Centre-fuge Tumblr. Previously.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Night hawk


Early evening in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] 7A will reopen Friday; management promises no painted fingers on the back wall


7A on East Seventh Street and Avenue A is closed this week for renovations — back open Friday at 6 p.m. ... the chalkboard out front notes that workers are installing a new sprinkler system, etc.

The sign also points out, "Don't worry we will not be painting fingers on the back walls again."

7A closed for renovations back in January 2011 ... and afterwards debuted the jungle motif...

Updated:

The work has proven to be more extensive and time-consuming than originally thought ... so the new re-opening date is Friday, Feb. 8.

[Updated] DOH temporarily closes Kelly's Sports Bar on Avenue A


EVG reader AC notes that Kelly's on Avenue A is closed this evening, and there's the telltale yellow DOH sticker on the front door. The inspection must have happened this afternoon — no record of it yet on the Health Department website. Perhaps they'll be back up and running by Thursday evening's Sabres-Bruins game.

Updated 1-30
The inspection report is now online. An inspector found 38 violation points in total for the following:

1) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.
2) Sewage disposal system improper or unapproved.




EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Stealing Claire Forlani on Avenue C]

Jerry Stahl and Lydia Lunch at St. Mark's Bookshop (Slum Goddess)

Million-dollar development deal to maintain East 6th Street synagogue (DNAinfo)

Up close with the hawk of Tompkins Square Park (The Gog Log)

Video interview with Aron "The Pieman" Kay (Animal)

"The cool thing is, Avenue C is still kind of a 'secret' area of New York City, just starting to be discovered" (Fork in the Road)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission schedules public hearing for the Bialystoker Nursing Home building (The Lo-Down)

About the "Retro Bar & Grill" slated for the Holiday Inn on Delancey (BoweryBoogie)

Jefferson Market Library's amazing NYC book collection (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

RIP Don't Honk signs (Gothamist)

Spending $47,000 at Nello (Eater)

And a second Strummerville show has been added tonight at the Bowery Electric... Details here.


Fed-up residents launch 'Solas Gone Wild'

Residents of East 9th Street have taken to Vimeo hoping to get the nightclub Solas to do something about the chaotic behavior routinely taking place outside of the establishment. The new “Solas Gone Wild” channel features three videos shot Sunday morning at 1:15AM of a Solas patron fighting in front of the club and storming up and down the block. At one point the police arrive, which does little to calm the situation.

Solas Fight - East Village, NYC Pt 3 from Solas Gone Wild on Vimeo.


“This kind of stuff happens every weekend and we're sick of it,” said one of the channel's creators. “It's guys fighting each other, people stumbling drunk into traffic. It's not noise from people having a good time, it's alcohol-induced violence and it needs to stop.”

Calls to 311 and to the nightclub itself have been made but so far the calls have done little to curb the late-night antics, the creators claim. — written by EVG contributor Atomic

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Woman on a stretcher outside Solas early Saturday morning

Reader report: Solas patrons turn sidewalk shed into after-hours hot spot

What color would you like to see the MTA adopt for their flashing lights on Select buses?

Last Tuesday, we had that post about the MTA discontinuing the flashing blue lights on the M15 Select buses on First and Second Avenues... apparently there were complaints because people thought the bus was an emergency vehicle.

We had a discussion about it in the comments.

Well, EVG regular Spike, who told us about all this in the first place, received an email from the MTA with some clarification:

New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law restricts the use of flashing blue lights to emergency-response vehicles only.

Per Spike: "Sounds better then 'stupid people couldn't tell the difference between a bus and an ambulance.'"

And now the MTA is testing new colors for the Select buses.

Spike is pulling for abalone shell or mother of pearl. And we're going with caput mortuum — Latin for "worthless remains," which captures how we feel riding the bus at times.

What color would you like to see the MTA adopt for their flashing lights on Select buses?

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP M15 Select bus flashing blue lights