Lisa Carmona is missing

These flyers are up all over Tompkins Square Park yesterday...

Friday Night Bloodwrestling Fight!: Annual Easter vs. Passover Smackdown at sundown!

From the EV Grieve inbox... tomorrow night...

The return of the live lady warriors (and lads)!

Double Down Saloon, 14 Avenue A

*Our Lady of Perpetual PMS and Referee Mike SOS present new, seasonal characters in their ferocious and hilarious matches! Saloon Stigmata edition, set to punk rock. Also starring The Gorgeous LADS of Bloodwrestling.

Men are recommended to come with a female friend.
MIXED event in the spirit of true fun and sports satire!
Anyone disrespectful or disruptive will be removed, perhaps dismembered.
NO A-HOLES, NO D-BAGS!
Claim your ringside seat by the pool of blood at 7:30 pm for the last half hour of the STELLAR Happy Hour.
Showtime at 8pm.
Latecomers suffer possible obstructed views, ridicule.

Live half-time entertainment TBA!

NO COVER, but donations to our fake blood fund appreciated.
21+, ID required

Satirically Yours,
-Our Lady of Perpetual PMS
GLOB! (Gorgeous Ladies of Bloodwrestling)

Here's the Facebook invite.

It was a little early for the moon to be out

What is it then? UFO? Drone?



Photos from the Tompkins Square Park Dog Run today via Bobby Williams

Reminder: The East Village Film Series starts tonight at Pangea

As we noted Tuesday, the folks at Pangea Restaurant & Bar, 178 Second Ave. near East 11th Street, are launching The East Village Film Series tonight at 8. The series kicks off with A Night of Short Films... showcasing "Nomadique." (Read more about that here.)

NYC-based director Matt K. Firpo is the series founder. He shares more about the vision with us:

"The East Village Film Series is dedicated to giving the community a place to mix and meet like-minded artists. Like the salons of old, the EVFS blends fine art and incredible stories, with a fantastic, comfortable environment, for a great evening of work by award winning New York filmmakers. I think in an age, where more than ever, we as an audience watch our content on the small screen, on computers in the comfort of our own home, we wanted to give people an excuse to come out and share cinema with others. We think there is nothing like the electricity, the buzz, of watching film with a great audience."

Here is the first CBGB movie poster

[Click on image to enlarge]

Via the CBGB movie Facebook page this afternoon... Early thoughts from Alex at Flaming Pablum: "Mark My Words... This movie is going to suck."

You?

The East Village is in the 1st rollout phase of the bike-share program this May, probably for sure

Well! Thanks to Streetsblog, we have an update on the oft-delayed bike-share program. Post-Sandy problems KO'd a full rollout this spring... But there will be a more modest rollout (263 stations instead of the originally planned 420), and the East Village is in the first phase for this spring (May, probs).

The updated bike-share map (above!) shows where the docking/sharing stations will be in the neighborhood. Go here for the interactive edition.

We love you, Blue?

[File photo by Shawn Chittle]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here are your East Village bike share locations, probably

Report: Citi Bike share back on track for a May debut, probably definitely

A treasure trove of Basquiat in this East Village home

ArtInfo has more about Alexis Adler, a one-time girlfriend of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In 1979, he "began transforming" her East Village apartment into "a living installation," including a wall mural featuring Olive Oyl. While the couple broke up a year later, Adler, one of the two supervisors of the Embryology Laboratory at NYU, never painted over his work.

We'll let ArtInfo pick up the narrative:

Obviously that turned out to be a wise decision — as was storing his notebooks, postcards, painted clothes, photographs, and drawings on yellow legal paper. Thirty years later, Adler has now begun to assemble a team of advisors to help sort through the material in preparation for a book on the collection and, in all likelihood, an exhibition and sale. "Part of the issue has been that I am a working biologist who has raised two kids on my own and have not had time or energy to deal with it," Adler said. "Now is the time, however."

Adler, who owns the apartment, is having someone from Fine Art Restoration refurnish and remove the wall... and is enlisting Basquiat’s former assistant, Stephen Torton, to rep her in any possible future sales.

Regardless, Adler is in no hurry. She says she is financially secure and has already waited 30 years, after all. "I just want to show it," she said. Her two children are now grown and she has a boyfriend who lives uptown, which means that these days her cats are the main witnesses to the mural. "And that’s a damn shame," she said, "because it’s a beautiful piece of art."

You can read the whole ArtInfo post here.

Basquiat died in 1988 at age 27.

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

'No 7-Eleven' street theater meeting planned for Saturday afternoon

From the EV Grieve inbox...

NO 7-ELEVEN MEETING
Bringing together our next event: street theater in Tompkins Square Park. Meeting is this Saturday, March 30, 524 E 11th St., #1 @ 1pm to plan our weekly fun-in-the-park street theater — making masks, signs, props, rehearse our skits and create our COMMUNITY WHEEL OF FORTUNE

(A big neighborhood-wide meeting is planned for the end of April — watch for it!)

We are upping our fight against the 7-Eleven projected on 11th St & A and against all corporate giants (clone stores & banks) taking over our streets, jobs, commerce, community character and future. Here's who we are and what we're about

What we're about here.

Who we are here.

The weather is supposed to be nice Saturday, so if lots of folks come, we'll take it to the park and put it all together there!

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

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

7-Eleven fallout: East Village groups propose resolution 'to restrict corporate formula stores'

Avenue A 7-Eleven construction update

On the topic of the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street ... we haven't looked at its progress in ... three whole weeks! (The last update was here.) As you can see, workers have removed the shanty-like plywood roof...

Flashback!



We are also curious about what kind of 7-Eleven signage will represent the store here. Not entirely sure, but we did spot this on the DOB website, in the standard ALL-CAP DOBese...

ERECT NON-ILLUMINATED NON-ADVERTISING AWNING ON WALL. 12 SQ FT COPY TO READ STRIPE 7-ELEVEN STRIPE. NOT WITHIN VIEW OF ARTERIAL HIGHWAY OR PUBLIC PARK. NO CHANGE IN USE, EGRESS OR OCCUPANCY.

As for the end of renovations/construction, the sign on the plywood points to a July 31 end date...



In other 7-Eleven news, BoweryBoogie has an update on the franchise opening on Grand Street here.

DOH temporarily closes Blue Owl on Second Avenue

The DOB temporarily closed Blue Owl on Second near East 12th Street Tuesday after an inspection yielded 49 violation points, according to city records.

Among the violations at the basement cocktail lounge/tapas joint: "Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred."

Good Friday blues explosion at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Tony Award winner and Grammy nominee Ann Duquesnay joins historic St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery to tell Good Friday story through blues music

WHAT: St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery provides worshippers with a unique, spiritually moving Good Friday experience with its annual Good Friday Blues. The service uses American blues music to recreate the Passion story of Jesus. Framed by powerfully rendered blues and gospel music, Good Friday Blues tells the story of the betrayal and death of Jesus as written in the Gospel of John.

WHEN and WHERE: Friday, March 29 from noon to 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, located at Second Avenue and East Tenth Street.

This year’s performance marks the 12th year of this liturgy, a collaboration between The Right Reverend Catherine S. Roskam, Bishop Suffragan of New York; Otis, and the St. Mark’s Choir.

WHO:Duquesnay and composer-guitarist Ana Hernandez will join the talents of the St. Mark’s Choir and the Good Friday Blues Band. Liturgy dancers include Dawn Crandell and a dancer from the Vissi Dance Theater. Co-narrating the Passion are Vinie Burrows and Amelia V. Anderson. Leading insightful and thought-provoking meditations throughout the service will be the Rector of St. Mark’s, The Rev. Winnie Varghese and The Rev. Richard Witt and Nell Gibson.

Billy Hurricane's is expanding, and looking for 'tattooed bartenders'

Spotted this link over at The Lo-Down yesterday ... apparently Billy Hurricane's on Avenue B is opening (or re-opening?) a new outpost in the area... and they are hiring bartenders... specifically via a listing at ShiftGig:

Tattooed Bartenders Wanted!
Job Description
Upcoming Lower East Side / East Village Bar w/ Kitchen Looking for some New Staff for New Location!
Bourbon... Beers... Burgers... Blastin' Rock!

What we are looking for...

>> Male or Female
>> Age 21- 31
>> Professional, Reliable & Punctual
>> Experienced (Mixology a Plus)
>> Outgoing & Fun
>> Tattoo'd ( not a unicorn on your ankle kind of tattoo)
>> Non-Complete-Alcoholic
>> Social Media Savvy
>> Possible Following of Friends / Fans

Previously.

On the April CB3/SLA docket: A billiards hall for Red Square; move for the Living Room; new partners for Boca Chica?

CB3 just released its schedule for April meetings... and there are some interesting applications on the SLA docket. We'll have more about the meeting, scheduled for April 8, later... for now, here are the more intriguing applicants:


[Boca Chica from several weeks ago]

Applications within Saturated Areas
• Golden C Hospitality (Golden C Hospitality), 13 1st Ave (op)

This is the address for Boca Chica, which, as Serena Solomon at DNAinfo first reported on Feb. 26, closed while the remaining owner looked for new partners. Perhaps she has found some.

New Liquor License Applications
• NYC Billiards Club Inc, 250 E Houston St (op)

Well. This address is for the shops along Red Square between Avenue A and Avenue B ... and there's a big fat vacancy ever since Blockbuster closed last year. Interesting... seeing as Soho Billiards closed several blocks away late last year.

• The Living Room (ACP Project), 173 E 2nd St (op)

Back on the docket after withdrawing last month. The acoustic-music venue is hoping to take over the Klean & Klenaer laundromat, as we previously reported.

• Goats (Goat Brothers Inc), 213 2nd Ave (op)

This is the address for the Nightingale Lounge. Anyone know what's going on here?

• The Nugget Spot (Uncle J's Inc), 230 E 14th St (wb)

Hmm. Quite a name. This is likely going in the former Walid Menswear space. They closed last fall.

I loved their storefront.

[Photo by James and Karla Murray]

Corporate Change with Complaint History
Cafe 81 (81 E 7th Pastry Shop Corp), 81 E 7th St (op)

New life for the bar that has been closed since the fall?

Free clothes up for grabs as East 10th Street laundromat closes

The laundromat (Chow & Lam Corp.) here at 204 E. 10th St. near Second Avenue has now apparently closed, victim of a large rent increase. EVG regular Steve Carter passed along these photos from today...



Mimi and her son Antony worked steadily here for many years. Mimi opened the Laundromat with her husband Peter, who passed away in May 2000.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike KOs East 10th Street laundromat

Report: Soho House plans more outreach as they put liquor license application on hold

As you know, there has been a bit of an uproar about Soho House expanding to Ludlow Street. Team Soho planned to be on next month's CB3/SLA committee docket.

But! As The Lo-Down reports today:

[T]he operators of the members’ club have decided to take some more time for community outreach before moving forward with their Lower East Side expansion plan, so the liquor application has been withdrawn, for now.

Previously on EV Grieve:
L.E.S. Dwellers make the case against Soho House expanding to Ludlow Street (32 comments)

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.


By James Maher

Name: Lucille Krasne
Occupation: Designer, Argentine Tango dance organizer
Location: 10th Street between Avenue A and B.
Time: 4 on Sunday, March 25

I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I always wanted to live in New York and so I ended up making the big move to the East Coast while everyone else was making the move to the West Coast. This is the only place I’ve ever lived in New York and I’ve been here for 43 years. This is it.

I am so proud of Tompkins Square Park, which I consider my front yard. Important things happen here. When I first arrived here, I thought it was heaven, paradise on earth, because in the Park on May Day you had all the young people with big red flags celebrating May Day, Communism, Collectivism, and then you had a group of Ukranians with great big signs saying, “Free the Captive Nations,” free all the people in communist countries.

I’ve also seen it go through terrible times. In 1988, I was so stunned to find the entire place surrounded by helmeted police with nightsticks during the riots. I couldn’t believe what was going on. I remember the screaming when they were throwing out all of the homeless people from the Park. I know there were a lot of dangerous things going on, but it killed me to hear that. I was yelling, “Why are you doing this to those people?”

But it’s been wonderful for me since they closed the Park at night because I can now actually sleep. People used to scream and make noise all night. Noise has been a terrible issue in this neighborhood. For years I wanted to blow my brains out and everybody used to think of ways to try and stop the noise. There were also the car alarms. I’ve had a lot of tubes of lipstick that I’ve written on cars with.

I’ve had a very checkered career. When I moved to LA after college, one of my first oddball jobs was creating a hand-puppet show for the County Parks Department out of a converted park washroom. We eventually took it on the road and showed it to zillions of children and then had big puppet workshops all over the place.

When I moved here, I worked for an arts funding organization. It was the perfect job for me. Having no money, I was able to give away money that was provided by the New York State Council in the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was quite a wonderful organization. I was a traveling consultant and I went out to meet with all sorts of groups around the state having to do with issues of arts, saving interesting architecture, poetry groups, dance groups. I advised groups on how to stimulate the community to support them. My role was to instigate them to instigate excitement within the community and bring in more people. I also worked on prison projects and with migrant worker programs.

I also created a jewelry business with my sister for 10 years. We named it Krasne Two. We were designing imaginative accessories and jewelry. We made quite a splash but it is very hard to keep that kind of world going when you are limited financially and don’t have enough backing. It was fun while it lasted. Now I design floor cloths and murals and all kinds of accessories

And then I went into the Argentine Tango business. I fell in love with the Argentine Tango as so many other have. I first fell in love with the music and then I fell in love with the dance. If it grips you it grips you and you’re really caught. I helped start the first New York City tango festival, which was about the wonders of New York and the wonders of Tango. I took the Milanga (Argentine Tango Party) outdoors to Central Park about 15 years ago. I called it the hit and run tango because if the police came you ran. You find a beautiful place, free or pretty free, open to the public, attractive, and everybody dances like crazy and you expand this community, which was teensy weensy. I don’t run it anymore but it’s still going on every Saturday afternoon.

We now run a weekly Milonga at The Ukrainian on 140 Second Ave. on Wednesdays. It’s called “Esmeralda’s E.V. Milonga and Supper Club.” We dance from 6 to 11:30 and if you come between 6 and 7:30 and have dinner with us then you don’t pay the admission. You can listen to the gorgeous Argentine music and watch the fine dancing.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Dutch Kills crew aiming to take over former Mercadito Cantina space on Avenue B

Looks as if the former Mercadito Cantina space on Avenue B near East 11th Street is getting a big-name suitor. The flyer attached to the window shows that applicants repping a new bar/tavern called The Asphalt Jungle will be on the April 8 CB3/SLA committee docket...



... and (at least) two of the names involved are part of the team behind Dutch Kills, the popular Long Island City cocktail lounge where bartenders hand-cut block ice down to size for cocktails behind the bar. (You can read more about their ice program here at the Times and here at Forbes.)



One of the applicants, Richie Boccato, is a veteran of Milk & Honey. He also co-owns tiki lounge Painkiller/PKNY on Essex Street, among other ventures (including Sweetleaf). We emailed Boccato yesterday afternoon to find out more about The Asphalt Jungle.

Mercadito Cantina closed in January 2011.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About Mercadito Cantina closing:'Open letter to EV Grieve and CB3' (58 comments)

Price drop on the former Luca Lounge space on Avenue B

While on the topic of Avenue B storefronts... Luca Lounge closed on Avenue B last spring... the first listing that we spotted for the space between East 13th Street and East 14th Street had an insane $19,995 monthly rental ask... (A stated 1,800 square-foot space.)

Now! An Avenue B tipster points out that the rent is now $14,000, per this Loop Net listing. Our tipster notes the price is still high, but slightly closer to market...

Previously on EV Grieve:
What the rent is for the former Luca Lounge space on Avenue B

Subway taking over from Ben & Jerry's on Third Avenue

In recent weeks, the for rent sign came down and contractors arrived at the former Ben & Jerry's on Third Avenue between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. The ice cream shop closed after 22 years here back in September 2010, as Jeremiah Moss first reported.

The space has remained vacant since then.

We asked Richard Colligan, proprietor of Metroplis next door, if he knew who the incoming tenant was.

Yes he does — it will become a Subway.

So this will reverse the trend of Subways closing around here ... like the franchise on East 14th Street and the one on Second Avenue near East Ninth Street ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
So what's going on with the former Ben & Jerry's space on Third Avenue?

Metropolis: 20 years of selling vintage clothes in the East Village

Noted

Spotted outside Alumni Hall, Third Avenue and East Ninth Street...