A walk among the trees on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The Tree Riders have the most picturesque seasonal workspace in the neighborhood ... on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street outside the historic St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery.

The vendors recently started their 12th year here... EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently walked through the 24/7 tree stand for a little holiday spirit ...

The list of other local tree sellers includes vendors on Astor Place (at Lafayette), Essex and Houston, and 14th Street at First Avenue.

Details about the Risograph Holiday Market on Cooper Square

Printed Matter/St. Mark's is teaming up with dieFirma for a one-day Risograph Holiday Market in connection with dieFirma's current exhibition, "Printing the Future: the Risograph Revolution." 

Printed Matter will be offering a wide range of risograph publications (from new titles to some deep cuts from the archives)... as well as some baked goods. 

The market is taking place tomorrow (Dec. 10!) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at dieFirma's space on the ground floor of 32 Cooper Square (between Fifth Street and Sixth Street).

Thursday's parting shot

As seen on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place tonight... John Lennon was murdered on this date in 1980...

1 month left of 'Stomp'

As reported this week, Stomp is ending its run at the Orpheum Theatre at 126 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place on Jan. 8 — after 29 years and 11,400-plus performances.

The closing is "due to declining ticket sales," a spokesperson for the production told The Hollywood Reporter. 

Ticket sales weren't an issue for today's noon matinee ... as there were long lines for entry. (Thanks to Steven for the photo!)

Noted

A reader-submitted photo of a headless Santa on Avenue D this morning... some kind of SantaCon warning?

Details on the 6th annual East Village Arts Festival at the Tompkins Square Library branch

The sixth annual East Village Arts Festival is taking place this Saturday (Dec. 10) at the Tompkins Square Library branch. 

This year's theme is "All About the Neighborhood," and features an array of local artists, musicians and writers. You can head to the library's website here for a full list of participants. 

The free in-person events, including readings and musical performances, take place from 3-7 p.m. 

The library is at 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Kim's Video, storied film and music retailer in the East Village, gets the documentary treatment

Kim's Video, which had an 18-year-run in the East Village, is the subject of a new documentary set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Some background first. After the multi-level Mondo Kim's closed at 6 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue in December 2008, the shop's massive collection of 50,000-plus tapes and DVDs were shipped off to a town in Sicily, as Jeremiah Moss first noted. 

The plans called for "a Never-ending Festival — a 24-hour projection of up to 10 films at once for the foreseeable future ... and, eventually, the conversion of all Kim's VHS films to DVDs to ensure their preservation." 

And eventually, the plan was for Kim's members to have access to digitized versions of all these films, an assortment of cult classics and hard-to-find treasures. (Didn't go so well in Italy.) 

So Variety has the scoop on the doc, directed by award-winning filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. 

"Kim’s Video" follows modern-day cinephile and filmmaker David Redmon on a quixotic quest to track down the whereabouts of the massive video collection of the now-defunct Kim's Video, an iconic NYC video rental store with more than 55,000 beloved and rare movies. 

More plot! 

Playing with the forms and tropes of cinema, David's bizarre and increasingly obsessive quest takes him to Sicily, where he becomes entangled in a web of local politics, and to South Korea, where he tracks down the enigmatic Mr. Kim in the hope of influencing the collection's future. 

"Kim’s Video" will open the Sundance Film Festival's NEXT section in January.

The Kim's empire had a modest start in Yongman Kim's dry-cleaning business at 99 Avenue A in 1986 ... the last Kim's Video & Music closed in 2014.   

The massive collection of DVDs and videos from Kim's Video is now available to rent from the Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan. (Background on all this here.)

Previously on EV Grieve:

• On the end of Kim's

Jay Joe's Classic Cuts now open on 3rd Street

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Jay Joe's Classic Cuts debuted earlier last week at 256 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The business evolved from Raul's Barber Shop, which recently closed — courtesy of a rent increase — after decades on Avenue B. In addition, Raul Velez Sr., who ran the shop at 11 Avenue B between Houston and Second Street for 61 years, decided to retire at age 81. 

Edgar Joe Velez (pictured below) is one of three owners ... along with his brothers Benny Velez and Steven Velez Gonzalez. All three are Raul's nephews. (The new shop is named for Edgar Joe's 15-year-old son).

You can expect to see some familiar faces from Raul's here. Jay Joe's is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The phone: (718) 578-9559. And you can find the shop on Facebook.

SantaCon 2022 route revealed

SantaCon is back for in-person binging and bar crawling this Saturday (Dec. 10). 

Organizers have released the official route, which is not too different from last year's edition. 

The official festivities begin at 10 a.m. on 40th Street and Broadway. Per the SC website: "Santa is Painting the town Red We will be dancing in the streets and Santa will unleash a holiday celebration NYC has never imagined possible!" 

A $15 "donation" gets your Santa Badge and access to 60-plus participating bars, mainly in Midtown West and East. 

This year, eight of the bars are in the East Village: 

• Amsterdam Billiards & Bar, 110 E. 11th St. at Fourth Avenue 

• Bull McCabe's, 29 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

• Coyote Ugly, 244 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

• Doc Holliday's, 141 Avenue A at Ninth Street 

• The Grayson, 16 First Ave. between First Street and Second Street 

• Horseshoe Bar/7B, 108 Avenue B at Seventh Street 

• The Phoenix, 447 E. 13th St.  between Avenue A and First Avenue 

• Solas, 232 E. Ninth St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

However, as we've seen in previous Cons, bars not on the official list are often all too happy to participate, including the 13th Step on Second Avenue. 

Shiny Galeani, an NYC SantaCon organizer, provided some damage control in a recent interview with Gothamist. 

"Every year we get a lot of press that shines a negative light on SantaCon. I understand and certainly it'll get more clicks." But, she said, some of the coverage felt a little unfair, focused on specific incidents from a decade ago. 

"People have all kinds of preconceived notions about what we are and why we do it," Galeani said. "A lot of it stems from bad press that we got a long time ago, and that’s a bummer." 

And don't call it a pub crawl! 

"It's definitely not a pub crawl because there is no order and you don't have to drink." Many bars, Galeani said, will serve mocktails. The biggest misunderstanding, of course — the one that goes beyond definitions and logistics — is that folks just don't get SantaCon. 

SantaCon is about "community and absurdity and the holiday spirit," said Galeani. She marveled at its ability to take over a place as big as New York City with sheer silliness. It is open to everyone.

Apparently, the MTA didn't get the "it's not a pub crawl" memo. The MTA is banning booze on LIRR and Metro-North Trains and stations for 32 Hours for SantaCon (from 4 a.m. Saturday to noon Sunday). 

Wednesday's parting shot

The holiday lights have arrived along Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... thanks to Steven for the photo...