Celebrating the life of John Farris

John Farris, a writer, poet and longtime resident of the Lower East Side, died in his East Third Street apartment of an apparent heart attack on Jan. 22. He was 75.

Tomorrow (Friday) night, his friends will be celebrating his life and work at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square S., from 6-9 p.m.

You may find more details on the flyer below...

A new lease for Jane's Exchange on East 3rd Street

[Photo from last September by James Maher]

Last September, we featured Eva Dorsey, co-owner of Jane’s Exchange, the children’s resale and consignment shop, in our weekly feature Out and About in the East Village.

The post ended this way:

Unfortunately, our current lease is up as of June 2016. We’re just announcing it now to our customers. This is our third location. We keep losing our leases. That’s the story. These stores can’t maintain anymore. Stores like this, it’s the end, period. Everyone asks why aren’t there more. There aren’t more because of real estate.I don’t know what’s going to happen, like everyone else, but it is highly unlikely that we can move again should our lease go up beyond our means. Like many small businesses, we simply may not make it.

Well, good news for fans of the 22-year-old store at 191 East Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B: They have a new two-year lease. They'll also be offering haircuts for kids with Maria, who worked next door at the now-closed eNe saloon.

For now, they need folks to start bringing in stuff for consigning. You can find a list of things they need (and don't need) at their website here.

A sidewalk bridge arrives outside Peter Brant's incoming gallery space on East 6th Street

The sidewalk bridge arrived this week here outside 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As previously reported, the building is expected to be a gallery space to display new owner Peter Brant's personal art collection. The intention is to have two shows per year. The first one was said to be scheduled for this fall. Not sure if that's still on track. We haven't heard much, if anything, about plans for the building since Brant's reps filed permits for renovations last summer.

There has been some signs of work in the vacant space to the west of the building that's part of No. 421's property...



According to previous plans for the place, the empty side lot will feature a garden space...



A new work permit was filed yesterday for the open space, though the job is in hub self-service at the DOB website and can't be viewed until it's accepted.

The building was a Con Ed substation built in 1920. The artist Walter De Maria, who died in July 2013 at age 77, bought it in 1980 to use as a home and studio.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumor: The Brant Foundation buying Walter De Maria's E. 6th St. studio for an exhibition space (19 comments)

Confirmed: Peter M. Brant buys Walter De Maria's amazing East 6th Street home and studio

1st permits filed for renovation of Walter De Maria's former home-studio on East 6th Street

More about the 1st show at Walter De Maria's former home-studio on East 6th Street

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street

When the world's top collectors of Dom Pérignon rosé came to the East Village for dinner

Reader report: 421 E. 6th St. will house Peter M. Brant's personal art collection

Peter Brant's East 6th Street Outreach Tour 2015 continues

Peter Brant meets the neighbors

Here's Johnny! on St. Mark's Place

The Stanley Kubrick-themed bar door has arrived here... A pretty good discarded door scene here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (Beats a photo of a stupid discarded toilet any day!)

Photo by Derek Berg.

Now, back to the picture show...

Flashbacks: An afternoon sitting at the Mars Bar listening to David Bowie

Last week, we posted a new video short by East Village-based filmmaker Jenny Woodward titled "Last Days of the Mars Bar."

In the entertaining 8-minute video, Hank Penza, the owner of the Mars Bar who died last November, shared some history of the corner space on Second Avenue and East First Street.

Now our friend Alex found a 90-second clip on YouTube ... a rather serene slice-of-Mars-Bar life showing a few people quietly sitting while David Bowie's "China Girl" plays on the jukebox.

The video isn't dated ... it was uploaded in April 2012 — about nine months after the Mars Bar closed for good. It's aptly titled in part "Sweet Memories."

Out and About in the East Village, Part 2

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: Alan Good
Occupation: Owner, HENGE Outdoor Ping Pong Tables, Dancer, Choreographer
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Time: 2 p.m. on Friday, April 15

Last week, Alan, who moved here in 1977, talked about his early career as a dancer with Merce Cunningham. After an injury, he started thinking about his future. He pitched some goofy ideas... and one of them caught the interest of a worker with the city's Small Business Administration.

My advisers were kind of bored, but one day there was this one guy, 75 years old, who was in the fashion industry. He had Coke-bottle glasses and eyebrows out to here, and I said to him, I’m kind of thinking of concrete ping-pong tables. I know them in China and Europe because I lived and taught over there, but I don’t see any here and I can’t find any on the web.

And he stopped what he was doing and looked into the distance and said, ‘Ping pong, I remember ping pong.’ And the complexion in his face changed and his eyes watered a little bit. This was a sincere response, even a physical one.

So I [created] Henge in 2009. After six years you make so many mistakes and just keeping going. I wasted so much time — I almost caused my company to fail. We used to have this word in Merce Cunningham, ‘wrong.’ Wrong actually meant right. It was so wrong it was right.

In 2011, [the table in the center of the Park] became the eighth table we ever made and the second in Manhattan. I whipped up a suggestion for Tompkins Square Park of two tables over in [the northeast section].

When we came along finally to donate, at the last second another angel named Marc Schulz said, ‘Well that’s cool, but why don’t we put it here?’ [near the center of the Park]. I just wasn’t ballsy enough to suggest this. And in one fell swoop he probably determined the success of my company. Suddenly it was in the heart of the classical arching network of paths in the Park, right by the staff center and flagpole, and the intersection, most important, had 4-foot paths.

This became a performance area. The table gradually became this gathering spot, like a pub. One thing I like is that teenagers... sometimes I see them just draped over [the table]. They’re using the net as a pillow, and there are like 17 of them on it. It’s so sculptural.

This allowed me to reach so much further the aim of my company, which is not really about a cool object, it’s about the negative space — the space around and what people do with it. That’s reflected in the sculptural idea, not just in the base. The emptiness around here is what people flow through.

There’s a concept in the base of that table, which we call the T40, which is a well-known volume from the branch of mathematics known as topology. This is called Steinmetz solids, and as a positive, as an actual mass that exists, are two cylinders that intersect, often at right angles.

Can you imagine if you have two straws, perfectly joined? Now Steinmetz solids as a negative, meaning if you pressed them into clay and removed them, and you look at the imprint that they leave, they leave a very interesting and not predictable shape. Negative space is exactly what you’re looking at. You’re also looking at another more commonly known simpler form, also known in mathematics as the ogee. The ogee is also something in 3-dimensions, but it happens to be an S-curve. Once you take a step back and look at all the variations, you see it in fluid dynamics, the human cheekbone, the feet in furniture, and in water and rivers.

You see these strange clearly etched lines that you’ve never really seen before. They’re symmetrical and they’re curved, but they’re unusual, and they have kind of a rational to them. People should be destabilized. People should be knocked a little bit goofy when they see things. That’s the kind of thing that healthy societies do, something to pry you off balance. The concept was that you just throw two things together, like a fairly large-scale public event with paddles and balls and onlookers, and then a tiny little living ecosystem that people ... can enjoy and watch.

Upon visiting Portland, Ore., there was a series of plazas that link like a necklace through the city. The city had dictated to two architects that they were to include and not quarantine away or ticket skateboarders, on the risky notion that skateboarders are not evil people. They mix with courtesy with any other kind of person, people going to and from school and work, and that they can coexist. They’re not so wild that they can hurt you.

So I came away from that experience saying the least I can do coming out with this new public amenity for parks is invite and not repel skateboarders. So we made a triangular net that skateboarders can [ride].

Now we’re in 35 to 40 cities and we [put another table in the Park in 2015]. The mailing list for the weekly tourneys that we do is probably 200. We’re hoping to get other neighborhoods going, because there are 20 Henge tables in all and this summer there will be 42 in the New York City area. Jones Beach State Park is getting 12. What we want is the folks who come around here to come regularly. They bring that out of each other — the idea that you can by chance kind of expect a buddy to show up, even without the aid of text.

The whole company is about trying to get strangers to meet, and because negative space is so important, that the base is an early expression of the power of the negative space. The object is cool, but what’s around it is even better.

Read Part 1 here.

Desi Shack is no longer open on 4th Avenue

I can't say for sure when this happened (recently though!) ... Desi Shack, the quick-serve Indian-Pakistani restaurant on Fourth Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street, has apparently closed... the signage is down, and the phone has been disconnected. There isn't any message about a closure on their social media properties (not that they were up-to-date) .... there's not even a mention of this on Yelp...

Anyway, the Desi Shack is gone... and the storefront now sports Pakistani Kitchen letters...



Perhaps the owners are retooling their concept. The original Desi Shack on Lexington Avenue has also closed. This location opened in July 2014.

Pretty good food, but this is a competitive stretch for quick-serve restaurants with neighbors Liquiteria, Dos Toros, Glaze Teriyaki and Fresh.

Albert Trummer's hospital-themed cocktail lounge Sanatorium now open on Avenue C

The cocktail lounge opened this past weekend on the northeast corner of Avenue C and Second Street.

In a preview of mixologist Albert Trummer's latest establishment, The New York Times notes Sanatorium's clinical theme.

The walls are the kind of green you’d expect in a hospital; there are surgical lights (and crystal chandeliers) and lots of stainless steel, and the drinks incorporate herbal elixirs that Mr. Trummer concocts.

And as Eater noted, "shots are also served in syringes."

Last July, Trummer told Bedford + Bowery that the new place will be "reasonable and cool for the neighborhood." Trummer also told B+B that he "won’t set any drinks, or his bar, on fire with again. At least, not without the proper permits."

According to published reports, FDNY investigators arrested Trummer in 2010 after setting alcohol aflame on the bartop at Apothéke on Doyers Street. He was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance, both misdemeanors. After the arrest, he told the Times: "My intention was not to hurt anybody. I'm an artist. I'm a mixologoist. I'm a cook. But I'm not a pyrotechnic maniac." He reportedly pleaded not guilty and served two days of community service.

A photo on Sanatorium's Facebook page does show some pyrotechnics... (though it's unclear if this is actually at Sanatorium...)



14 Avenue C was previously home to Adinah's Farm, the market that closed in June 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Mixologoist Albert Trummer looking to bring a cocktail bar to Avenue C

7th Street returns to 1981 for filming of young Barack Obama movie ‘Barry’ [Updated]

Crews were out today along Avenue B and Seventh Street for "Barry," the story of a college-aged Barack Obama "trying to find his way in 1981 New York City."





Per the Hollywood trades, newcomer Devon Terrell has the lead. The independent drama is being directed by Vikram Gandhi, a Vice correspondent who made the documentary "Kumare."

Photos today by Derek Berg

Updated 4/27

EVG reader Charlie Chen shares a few more photo of the police cruiser when it was parked on East 10th Street waiting for filming...

Capturing 2 lightning strikes early this morning at One World Trade Center

EVG reader Gregory Patrick had been wanting a shot of lightning striking the steel spire atop One World Trade Center.

He got his wish early this morning around 4 — twice.





"I go out for storms, and I’ve been watching radar looking for a storm to head downtown," said Patrick, who usually photographs circus performers for his entertainment company. "I've gotten shots of lightning hitting the tower from my roof in the East Village, but I wanted a shot from looking straight up."

Several photographers captured a lightning strike here last month. (The lightning rod atop the building reportedly measures 16 feet.)

While there isn't any documentation on the number of strikes at One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building is reportedly struck about 25 times per year.

Anyway...this seems necessary now...

Do you need that open summons for, say, public urination, cleared from your record?

[NOT LinkNYC but rather the World Famous Pee Phone™]

Then do we have an event for you.

Via the EVG inbox...

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., the New York Police Department, the Office of Court Administration, the Legal Aid Society, and Grand Street Settlement announced the second “Clean Slate” event, an upcoming warrant forgiveness opportunity where New Yorkers with open summons warrants for qualifying crimes can have them cleared from their record, without fear of arrest.

The types of summons warrants that can be cleared at this event include:

· Disorderly Conduct

· Public Consumption of Alcohol

· Public Urination

· Littering

· Unlawful Possession of Marijuana

· Others, including some subway offenses

In addition to the outstanding warrant, the underlying summons can also be resolved at this event without fines or other penalties. The presiding judge will issue Adjournments in Contemplation of Dismissal, or ACDs, which require the recipient to avoid new arrests for six months, before the dismissal and sealing of his or her case. Warrants for felony or misdemeanor charges cannot be resolved at Clean Slate, but Legal Aid attorneys will be present to offer free legal advice in an effort to help individuals resolve such cases.

Despite the minor nature of the offenses, people with outstanding warrants can be arrested and placed in jail for 24 hours while they are they are processed through the system.

More than 700 New Yorkers came to the first Clean Slate event in November 2015 in Harlem, at which 409 summons warrants dating back almost 20 years were vacated.

Clean Slate will take place this Saturday, April 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Grand Street Settlement on 80 Pitt St., near Rivington Street.

Find a PDF with the Clean Slate FAQs here.

Hawklet watch is on now in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Goggla reports that feedings were witnessed at Christo and Dora's nest in Tompkins Square Park this past weekend... meaning at least one of the hawk eggs in the bi-level nest near Avenue B and Eighth Street has hatched.

The red-tailed hawk parents started the nest-building activities back in early February, as Goggla documented.

The nest watch is decidedly different this year... Christo and Dora built their nests on air conditioners the past two years... on the Christodora House in 2014... and the Ageloff Towers in 2015.

Without windows or roof access, it will be more challenging for the hawkarazzi to keep tabs on the action.

Meanwhile, expect to see more food deliveries from Christo, who was busy hunting in the Park yesterday...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House

More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House

Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents

Hawk (and egg) watch continues on Avenue A, now with the help of a live webcam

Christo and Dora are parents! (Again!)