Saturday, June 11, 2022
'Happy 35th Gay Anniversary' to Linda Simpson and My Comrade at Howl! Happening
Photos by Stacie Joy
This summer, Howl! Happening is celebrating Linda Simpson's photographs and her groundbreaking magazine, My Comrade.
Here's more about "My Comrade Magazine: Happy 35th Gay Anniversary" at the space, 6 E. First St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery:
My Comrade magazine was founded by drag queen Linda Simpson in 1987 during the dark era of the AIDS crisis and served as a symbol of hope and frivolity to the East Village gay scene and beyond. Armed with a tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" agenda, the magazine glorified heroic drag queens and sexy guys in a cut-and-paste mishmash of articles and photo spreads. Lesbians got their due when the flip side became Sister! The sporadic publishing schedule produced a total of 11 issues until 1994. It was revived in 2004 for two more.The exhibit features reproductions and enlargements of My Comrade's black-and-white pages. Notable contributors to the magazine included photographers Jack Pierson and David Armstrong, painter Stephen Tashjian a.k.a. Tabboo!, and drag stars RuPaul and Lady Bunny. The exhibit also features Simpson's color photos of the era from her acclaimed 2021 photo book, "The Drag Explosion," published by Domain.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy went to the opening last weekend, where she took these photos... including of Linda...
The First Street gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. "My Comrade Magazine: Happy 35th Gay Anniversary" will be up through July 17.
You can check out this feature at Dazed for more history.
The bands playing in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon
Other bands: 95 Bulls ... The Vansaders ... No Grudges ... and (get there early for) Jade Tourniquet.
The show is expected to run from 1:45 to 6 p.m.
Best wishes to John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants
According to the Daily News: "Flansburgh, 62, was taking a car service back to his Upper East Side home after the band had a show at the Bowery Ballroom at about 12:45 a.m. Thursday when the Ford he was riding in was T-Boned by a 2016 Honda near the corner of Park Avenue and East 102nd Street."
Flansburgh and the 32-year-old livery driver were taken to Cornell Hospital. The guitarist broke seven ribs. (The driver's condition is not known.)
Per reports, 26-year-old Bronx resident William Mota was charged with drunk driving, resisting arrest and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test. Police told the Associated Press that Mota ran a red light, jumped a curb and plowed into the gate of a housing complex, hitting two cars along the way.
Flansburgh wrote about the collision in a lengthy Instagram post...
While Flansburgh diffused the situation with some humor, Streetsblog pointed out that through June 5, "there have been 41,772 reported crashes (roughly 270 per day), injuring 1,542 cyclists, 3,495 pedestrians and 13,644 motorists" in NYC.
They Might Be Giants were regulars in the East Village in the 1980s... you can read our interview with the band's other John, John Linnell, right here.
And while were here...
Friday, June 10, 2022
Details about a LES Pride Book Crawl tomorrow (Saturday!)
Several bookstores of the LES and East Village are participating in a bookstore crawl, the focus of which is Pride Month.
The crawl starts at noon on Saturday, June 11, and each store is offering giveaways and prizes.Participating stores:• Bluestockings Cooperative Bookstore at 116 Suffolk St.• Book Club Bar at 197 E 3rd St.• Sweet Pickle Books at 47 Orchard St.• Yu & Me Books at 44 Mulberry St.• McNally Jackson at 52 Prince St.• Pillow-Cat Books at 328 E 9th St.
'Cheap' thrills
There's a new video out today via Surfbort, hanging here in Times Square. "Cheap Glue" is off the band's Keep on Truckin' release.
Details about the East Village Queer Market on Avenue A tomorrow
Photos by Stacie Joy
A handful of local vendors will be participating tomorrow in this "celebration of Queer Makers" from noon to 6 p.m. at 50 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street. Find more details here. You can also shop online here.
The sponsors are the East Village Independent Merchants Association, 3rd and B'zaar and Exit9, with co-owner Charles Branstool pictured below. 
Come, let's drive along some side streets between Avenue C and Avenue D in 1987
A reader shared a more-recent version that looks a little more high-quality.
In the silent clip, the driver/film crew start on Houston and turn onto Avenue D... and from here the car drives up and down some desolate side streets between Avenue C and Avenue D... you may recognize a few things ...
Ray's is ready to crank out the ice cream all summer long
As Peter Brownscombe noted, Ray now has four machines of varying vintages working at varying efficiencies.
Per Peter: "So anyone requiring an ice cream this summer, you know where to go."
Ray's, 113 Avenue A at Seventh Street.
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