Friday, July 19, 2013
Sigmund Pretzel Shop (soft) reopens today
Thursday, July 18, 2013
This elm is apparently coming down in Tompkins Square Park
After our earlier post today... we've heard from a handful of people who say that this entire Elm needs to be removed in the Park at the entrance on East Ninth Street and Avenue B...
...these photos by Bobby Williams show some hack marks at the base of the tree as well...
[EVG]
Reader report: Limbs coming down in Tompkins Square Park
Several readers have passed along word (and photos) that workers are removing limbs from the great Elm just off Avenue B on at the East Ninth Street entrance of the Park...
No word just yet on why the limbs are coming down... or how much more of the tree will need to be removed...
We'll check in with GammaBlog, who has created the Tompkins Square Park Tree Identification Map...
Q-and-A with Nick Zedd
[From Police State. Willoughby Sharpe, left, and Nick Zedd. Courtesy Nick Zedd]
Nick Zedd is in town from Mexico City for a short visit... he is part of a program tonight at the New Museum titled "Moving Image Artists’ Distribution Then & Now." (Find more details on this here.)
And tomorrow evening, The New Museum is showing a retrospective of his work. Per the program:
Nick Zedd’s commitment to DIY artists’ film distribution helped sustain the MWF Video Club project. He will present and speak about his film work with Michael Carter of MWF. The program will include: The Bogus Man (11 min); Thrust In Me (8 min); Police State (18 min); War Is Menstrual Envy (excerpt; 9 min); Why Do You Exist (11 min); Ecstasy In Entropy (15 min); and Tom Thumb (3 min).
Nick Zedd coined and spearheaded the Cinema of Transgression film movement, directing forty-four motion pictures since 1979 and editing The Underground Film Bulletin from 1984 to 1990. Nick Zedd currently resides in Mexico City where he paints, writes screenplays, shoots videos, and publishes Hatred of Capitalism magazine. He recently presented films and artworks at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and received an Acker Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Avant-Garde.
Michael Carter is a poet, writer, performer, and cultural critic, living in New York City. From 1982–92, he was the editor and publisher of the quintessentially East Village literary and arts journal/zine redtape, and from 1988 to 2003 he was codirector of the MWF Video Club.
Ahead of his visit to the New Museum, we asked him a few questions about his feelings on New York these days (he resided in the East Village for years) as well as Mexico City, where he lives with Monica Cassanova and their son Zerak.
You had a retrospective in Brooklyn in January. Now this at the New Museum. How do you feel returning to NYC — even just for a few days?
I like returning to NYC to see how it's changed and meet old friends. I appreciate the energy of NYC and like to compare it to Mexico City which is so different. There's a sense of desperation in NYC that gives it an edge. I like to observe people. I'm appalled by the loud tourists and ugly humanoids everywhere. There are so many ugly people in NYC, it's incredible.
Yesterday I sat on a park bench in Union Square and watched lovers sit and talk to each other. A black teen with a doo-rag and a wife-beater t-shirt covered in tattoos was talking on a cell phone while his fat girlfriend in a striped dress had her legs draped over his. She waited while he talked to someone, then he embraced her like a small child and it really moved me. There was real love; fragile and fleeting. I'd witnessed something profound. He was beautiful. She was beautiful too. Their love made them beautiful. I wish I'd had a camera on me.
There's a treasure trove of culture in the museums and libraries in NYC and I like selling my art to collectors here. I lived most of my life in NYC so it's still a part of me.
Do you see any positives in Bloomberg's NYC?
The people, who exhibit the NYC strength and anger; the individuality of street people...I never tire of their quality of openness... working class people. They give the city a sense of conviction. A flavor. They're what make it interesting.
We did a Q-and-A with Lydia Lunch back in May. Her advice for emerging artists here: "Leave the country as soon as possible!" What is your advice?
The same. That's why I moved to Mexico. The U.S. is a dead zone for artists.
Do surroundings make a difference? Or do you think the creativity has to come from inside regardless of where you are?
It has to come from inside, but going somewhere unfamiliar can enable your creativity to mutate in ways you'd never expect.
How's life in Mexico City?
It's quieter and more peaceful. It has a magical quality that I'm still discovering.
[Poster courtesy of gallery.98bowery.com]
[Top photo via The New Museum]
Soap opera shocker: Klean & Kleaner reopening as a laundromat
Wow. Klean & Kleaner closed down on East Second Street this past weekend ... the laundromat here between Avenue A and Avenue B had been on the market for use as a bar-restaurant...
Word spread among readers yesterday that a laundromat is back. EVG Facebook friend Edward Arrocha passed along the following: "Klean & Kleaner will reopen as a laundromat. It was sold to a different owner and the washing machine doors were returned. I do not know if it will be Klean & Kleaner or if it will have a change of name."
Indeed, a handwritten sign on the door yesterday courtesy of RyanAvenueA notes the return of the laundromat. No word on how many of the Klean & Kleaner staff will catch on with jobs here.
As previously reported, the owners of the Living Room on Ludlow Street were hoping to take over this space, though the CB3/SLA committee turned down that proposal in May.
BoweryBoogie reported this from that CB3 meeting:
As it stands, this stretch of Second Street was grandfathered into a general residence district, and doesn’t allow for any performances with cover charges. There was reportedly contact with the DOB to settle this issue, but the Living Room hadn’t heard any news as of last night. And they didn’t have the luxury of laying over the application another month due to landlord/lease constraints, so a vote had to transpire.
Word is the landlord figured that the space would sit empty ... and found a new owner willing to pay higher rents to run a laundromat.
Karl Fischer's latest creation makes an appearance above the plywood on East 3rd Street
Back in March, we checked in on 316-318 E. Third St., where a Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit apartment building is in the works ... replacing a circa-1835 single-family home. At that time, it appeared there were some flooding issues with the foundation...
Workers have found some solid ground ... as the structure has made an appearance from behind the plywood here between Avenue C and Avenue D...
...and here's a rendering of the space...
[Brody/Amirian]
Previously on EV Grieve:
Another parcel of East Village land ready for development
33-unit, Karl Fischer-designed building rising at former home of Community Board 3 member
Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects hearing for 316 E. Third St., paving way for 7-floor condo
Lovely townhouse with bucolic gardens on East Third Street ready for "creative expansion"
East Yoga still planning on finding a permanent East Village home
Fire caused extensive damage to the East Yoga space last November on East 13th Street and Avenue B...
There's now a "for rent" sign on their former space...
We asked Jen, the studio manager at East Yoga, for an update.
"We are definitely planning on finding a new location in the neighborhood, and have been working on that since the fire. We just don't have one yet," she said. "We do, however, have an abbreviated schedule of classes in a temporary location at ABC Sanctuary [on East Sixth Street] on the weekend, and are holding free yoga classes in Tompkins Square Park during the week."
She said that she was hopeful to have some good news about a new space in the coming weeks.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Fire at East Yoga on East 13th Street and Avenue B
There's now a "for rent" sign on their former space...
We asked Jen, the studio manager at East Yoga, for an update.
"We are definitely planning on finding a new location in the neighborhood, and have been working on that since the fire. We just don't have one yet," she said. "We do, however, have an abbreviated schedule of classes in a temporary location at ABC Sanctuary [on East Sixth Street] on the weekend, and are holding free yoga classes in Tompkins Square Park during the week."
She said that she was hopeful to have some good news about a new space in the coming weeks.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Fire at East Yoga on East 13th Street and Avenue B
Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: brooding, driving, Ryan Gosling
Tonight's free film in Tompkins Square Park is "Drive" from 2011, featuring Ryan Gosling as the brooding wheelman who broods and hits on Carey Mulligan.
There's pre-film music courtesy of Brendan O'Hara.
Of course, all this is weather permitting... If it's a Thursday, then it will rain. Even though it isn't supposed to rain. Check the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for updates on tonight's screening. Four of the five films have been cancelled this summer due to rain or the threat of rain.
And upcoming...
July 25 — The Big Lebowski
Aug. 1 — Rocky Horror Picture Show
Aug. 8 — Chico + Rita
Aug. 15 — Romeo + Juliet
Aug. 22 — O Brother, Where Art Thou
There's pre-film music courtesy of Brendan O'Hara.
Of course, all this is weather permitting... If it's a Thursday, then it will rain. Even though it isn't supposed to rain. Check the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for updates on tonight's screening. Four of the five films have been cancelled this summer due to rain or the threat of rain.
And upcoming...
July 25 — The Big Lebowski
Aug. 1 — Rocky Horror Picture Show
Aug. 8 — Chico + Rita
Aug. 15 — Romeo + Juliet
Aug. 22 — O Brother, Where Art Thou
Reader report: NYPD shuts down Adinah's Farm
[Photo by Grace Elizabeth Mangum via Facebook]
Several readers have passed along word that the NYPD has closed Adinah's Farm on Avenue C and East Second Street ... we don't exactly what transpired here... the sign on the corner deli's door notes "stolen property offenses."
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