Another 'riot' in Tompkins Square Park, this time for the cameras

As mentioned here previously, filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini were recreating the Tompkins Square Park riots of 1988 last night for their low-budget adaption of the Eleanor Henderson novel "Ten Thousand Saints." (Read more about the film, due next year, right here.)

Now here's a look at some of the action, thanks to several EVG readers who sent along photos/video.

The first batch of photos are by Michael Donovan …





















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Here's a snippet of video from Gail George showing riot rehearsal before the cameras rolled…



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And from Michael Paul …









… and a few photos from Michael from the late afternoon…







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And how did it all eventually come together? Here is video from Michael Donovan's Instagram account …



Previously on EV Grieve:
Filmmakers will recreate the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 this Thursday night

Film crew recreates 'tent city' in Tompkins Square Park

Film crew uses 'D Squat' and phone booths to recreate an 1980s East Village on 6th Street

[Updated] First Avenue subbing for Avenue D today

Planet of the Frank Ape: Q-and-A with artist Brandon Sines

Tomorrow night at Specials on C (the former corner deli on Avenue C and East 12th Street), Brandon Sines will have his work featured in a new exhibit titled "Dealing With Things Is Tricky."

You may recognize his favorite subject — Frank Ape, which Sines has wheat-pasted or painted around various spaces in the neighborhood.

Here's more about the show via the EVG inbox:

"Dealing With Things Is Tricky" is Sines' second solo show and his most ambitious work to date. The main subject of "Dealing With Things Is Tricky" will be Sines' hairy, unkempt street denizen character known as Frank Ape ... [the show] is a total immersion into the world of Frank Ape. Drawings, paintings, and mixed-media pieces [take] inspiration from contemporary pop culture, celebrity, and iconic movie and music imagery.

We're Frank Ape fans, so we thought we'd ask Sines a few quick questions on the eve of the show.

You were never interested in pursuing art, let along attending art school. So how did all this come about?

I guess I had my own ideas of what I wanted to do, which never involved "art," but always involved being my own boss... I tried a bunch of different things, which everyone has to do to figure out what they like. During that period I started playing around again with drawing and painting like I did when I was a kid, and everyone just responded to it so positively. It got to a point where I couldn't ignore it, and I had to acknowledge where my natural skill sets were and how to nurture them. It's really motivating to have an audience that responds to what you're doing.



How did the creation of Frank Ape evolve?

Just an idea I had for a painting in 2011...putting this person, who is like us, but who isn't so intellectually evolved — more emotionally, in a traumatic situation. I kept wanting to repeat the character and it organically turned into it's own thing. I don't really put Frank in many traumatic situations anymore. Now it's more about having fun and pushing the limits of how we can make Frank come to life.

There's a 1980s influence/inspiration in your work. Do you ever wish that you could have been creating art/living in that time period instead of now?

Haha, yeah part of me used to feel that way... but I think we'll be looking back at this time in 25 years and feeling the same romantic, nostalgic feeling that we do now about the 80s. So I totally embrace where I'm at.

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"Dealing With Things Is Tricky" opens tomorrow from 7-10 p.m. ... and will be on view daily, by appointment, through May 6 at 195 Ave. C at East 12th Street. Find more of Sines' work here.


[Photo from October by Stacie Joy]

More details about the new Avenue A project from Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield

[Photo from February]

As we first reported yesterday, high-profile restaurateurs Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield are hoping to open a cafe-bar concept in the former San Loco space at 151 Avenue A.

The paperwork (PDF!) filed ahead of this month's CB3/SLA committee meeting on May 12 offers a few more details on the concept. The documents at the CB3 website show a cafe/bar with five tables seating 10-12 people, and a bar with a 7-person capacity.

Here is the diagram that accompanies the paperwork…



Meanwhile, the proposed kitchen hours are 7 a.m. to 4 a.m. And here is the sample menu…


[Click on image to enlarge]

Although nothing on file at the CB3 website has Friedman and Bloomfield's name attached to it, multiple people have told us they are behind this project … perhaps they will even make an appearance tonight to discuss their plans with the North Avenue A Neighborhood Association…



Updated 10:04 a.m.

Eater offers some Friedman-Bloomfield history this morning:

It's also worth noting that in the past, they have gone through the process of applying for liquor licenses many times without actually committing to the spaces they were eyeing.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield eyeing the former San Loco space on Avenue A

Tomorrow at MoRUS: Zine release party, art show and the history of 155 Avenue C.

[155 Avenue C circa 1940 or so]

From the EVG inbox…

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) invites you to a 'zine release party and art show on Saturday (May 3). We will be presenting a history lesson in zine form — the history of our tenement building, No. 155 Avenue C, starting from when it was first built in the 1800s and ending when it was abandoned in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Also, throughout May, MoRUS will be displaying photos from Brian Rose's book "Time and Space on the Lower East Side," a collection of photographs of the Lower East Side from 1980 and 2010, photographs that look backward and forward, that posit the idea that places are not simply “then and now,” but exist in a continuum of decay and rebirth.

Saturday's event begins at 1:55 p.m when the art show opens, featuring work by: Alyssa Tanchajja, Amy Westpfahl, Brian Rose, Diane Rohem, FLY, Konstantin Sergeyev, Lauren Denitzio, Mac McGill, Maggie Wrigley, Nico Ramirez, Peter Missing, W.D. Bickerknocker, and a collection of flyers, pamphlets and articles from Jerry the Peddler's Squatters & Riots archive.

Music starts at 5 p.m.

Vist the Facebook event page here for more details and a full listing of all the performers.

In case you were going to Lucy's this weekend…

Meant to note this earlier in the week… Lucy is on a break until next Thursday here on Avenue A.

Frowny face.

Last call for Speakeasy on Avenue C this weekend

The continued transformation of Nublu's new home at 151 Avenue C meant that the longtime tenant upstairs, Speakeasy, would eventually have to close up… and that's happening this weekend … Saturday night is it for the low-key salsa bar/club on the second floor that often feels as if you're in someone's living room. (Until the whole place is dancing anyway.)



Previously on EV Grieve:
151 Avenue C: "This prime East Village location stands out as a rare opportunity for users, investors and developers"

Nublu moving up Avenue C; restaurant in the works for new space

Report: Not everyone is happy about the pending arrival of Nublu's 2-story new home

NYC Deli Market Corp. moving into the former Wacky Wok space

The 4-year-old Wacky Wok closed on Avenue D and East Ninth Street at the start of this year.

Workers have been renovating the space … and the sign of the new tenant recently arrived — NYC Deli Market … the signage shows that they'll be offering the usual deli fare these days — sandwiches, hot and cold drinks, organic products…

East 7th Street, 9:22 p.m., May 1

Setting up for the Tompkins Square Park "riot" scene later tonight for "Ten Thousand Saints."

Also, there will be police officers on horses…

Noted

An EVG reader noted this happening at Poco on Avenue B and East Third Street...

Filmmakers prepping to film a 'riot' tonight in Tompkins Square Park

As we noted Monday, filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are recreating the Tompkins Square Park riots of 1988 tonight for their low-budget adaption of the Eleanor Henderson novel "Ten Thousand Saints."

Here's a look at the action as of around 5:15 …





… and a few of the extras wait for their scene(s) …





The scenes of the actual "riot" are being filmed tonight… crews are expected here until 3 a.m.

We welcome any photos or videos of the filming action today/tonight … Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Photos by Bobby Williams

Previously on EV Grieve:
Filmmakers will recreate the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 this Thursday night

Film crew recreates 'tent city' in Tompkins Square Park

Film crew uses 'D Squat' and phone booths to recreate an 1980s East Village on 6th Street

[Updated] First Avenue subbing for Avenue D today

A Softee spot for legal battles

Hey, you remember a few weeks ago when we posted the above photo (thank you arrows!) of the Master Softee truck on East 14th Street... and there were comments about lawsuits between Mister Softee and Master Softee and all that?

Sure EV!

Well, the Daily News has a piece on all this lawsuit stuff today if you are interested...

The New Jersey-based owner of the ubiquitous ice cream trucks is suing a rogue Queens vendor, charging he opened his depot in Long Island City to peddle a knockoff version.

A mix of about two dozen nearly identical Master Softee and Mister Softee trucks are lined up inside and outside Dimitrios Tsirkos’s 11th St. garage.

The fledgling business has soured tempers throughout Mister Softee headquarters in South Jersey and its franchisees across Queens and the Bronx. Owner Jim Conway cried trademark infringement in a March lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court and demanded Tsirkos drop the Softee con.

“They want to confuse the public,” said Conway, who is no stranger to the courthouse. His 58-year-old family-owned company has spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in legal fees since the mid-1990s chasing down copycats in more than 10 cases.

Read the whole article here.

H/T Eater

Previously on EV Grieve:
So what's the deal with 'Master Softee?' (20 comments)

The 1st Lower East Side (LES) History Month starts today

[Yet ANOTHER butter and eggs shop!]

From the EVG inbox…

May 2014 brings the first annual Lower East Side (LES) History Month, a month-long celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City's Lower East Side, including the neighborhoods of the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy and Alphabet City. With participation by more than 60 Lower East Side-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month will feature over 80 affordable and unique events, including live performances, exhibits, gallery and walking tours, talks, film screenings, festivals and more.

LES History Month opens with Chalk/LES, a weekend-long participatory project to bring LES history, art and stories onto the streets of the neighborhood. Starting Friday, May 2, numerous LES sites will be emblazoned with chalked trivia and memories of their lived histories. On Saturday, May 3, public chalking sites will be open for all, encouraging passersby to participate with their own stories and images of the LES. Game participants are also invited to join scavenger hunt teams, organized by Guerilla Haiku Movement, who will head out and cover the neighborhood with sidewalk-chalked poetry, and engage passersby in their own creative storytelling about the LES.

Chalk/LES culminates on Sunday, May 4, as artists and volunteers will chalk a pathway from various LES transit hubs toward East River Park, along the waterfront, and arriving at Pier 42 for Picnic on the Pier. As a partnership with Paths to Pier 42, LES History Month will present salsa dancing with las Dinimicas of Grand Street Settlement, gypsy swing from Sugar Hill Gypsy Jazz, songs from the young singers of Downtown Art, and an afternoon of family friendly art activities led by The Tenement Museum and the Museum of Chinese in America.

To celebrate, LES History Month will also announce the inaugural LES Heroes award, recognizing the often unsung contributions of neighborhood residents, activists and leaders.

To find out more about LES History Month, its participants and opening weekend programming, visit here.

Photo via NewYorkHistory.info