EV Grieve

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Video: Opening night at MoMa's Club 57

[Image via]

As you likely read about somewhere, "Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983" opened last month at MoMa ... the retrospective explores the influential venue at 57 St. Marks Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (This exhibit has generated a lot of press... most recently with this interview published Thursday at The Brooklyn Rail with guest curator Ann Magnuson.)

Yesterday, MoMa posted this video from the opening...

You have until April 1 to catch "Club 57" at MoMa.

H/T Christine C.!

Santa is coming (came) to the 9th Precinct

The 9th Precinct's annual holiday party is going on right now ... until 1 p.m. on Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

And there's probably a SantaCon joke here somewhere...

Nobody makes a better entrance then #SantaClaus arriving at our #EastVillage neighborhood party #NYC @NYPDCommAffairs #NYPDConnecting pic.twitter.com/oJ0mzrkjy8
— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) December 16, 2017

Friday, December 15, 2017

[Updated] Report of a fire at 80 E. 3rd St.

FDNYalerts MAN 2-ALARM 80 E 3 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN THE SHAFT BETWEEN BUILDINGS,
— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) December 16, 2017

The address is between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

Fire in East Village pic.twitter.com/bkPOcgIKBF
— Nick Shippers (@nickshippers) December 16, 2017

Updated 12/16
NY1 reports one person was injured. (The report described it as non-life threatening.)

FDNY officials said the fire started in a shaft on the third floor of the five-story building. No word on a cause yet.

Updated 9 a.m.

A look at the building now...

Updated 10:45

An EVG reader who lives in the building shared these photos of the apartment where the fire started...

The resident of this unit has apparently lived in the building for a very long time...

The reader lives in the back of the building ... and that apartment only suffered minor water damage. People living in the front needed to leave. Those apartments have extensive water damage.

Much ado about 'Nothing'

"Nothing Feels Natural," the debut record from Washington, D.C.'s Priests, made a few top-10 lists this year... the above video features live versions of "JJ" and "Nothing Feels Natural."

Noted

10th Street and Avenue B this afternoon...

EV Grieve Etc.: Lead-dust nightmare on 12th Street; more vendors for the new Essex Market

[A view on Avenue A yesterday by Grant Shaffer]

An ongoing lead-dust nightmare in this 12th Street building currently owned by Madison Realty Capital (The Villager)

City Council passes bill to increase transparency for urban renewal areas (The Lo-Down)

Thoughts on "What About Me," Rachel Amodeo's drama shot in the East Village in the early 1990s, playing Dec. 27 and Jan. 1 as part of MoMa's "New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive" series (The New Yorker)

Critic Robert Sietsema likes Gino Sorbillo Pizzeria, recently opened on the Bowery (Eater ... previously)

Incoming vendors at the New Essex Market include a new concept from Radouane Eljaouhari, who ran Zerza (and briefly, the dubious 'Merica) on Sixth Street (The Lo-Down)

A cinematic celebration for Jonas Mekas’s 95th birthday (Anthology Film Archives)

A feature on the mother-son who run Au Za’atar on Avenue A at 12th Street (The Daily Meal)

Some photos from the East Village Arts Festival at the Tompkins Square Library (Slum Goddess ... previously)

Essex Crossing rental will be named for Sonny Rollins (Curbed)

The Luke’s Lobster’s "Star Wars" giveaway (The Voice)

From the Gilded Age, Christmas in the tenements (Ephemeral New York)

And several EVG readers have shared crowdfunding campaigns currently underway for two East Village residents... Barbara Caporale, a longtime community gardener and activist who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, is in danger of losing her home. You can read about the campaign here. There's also a campaign for Jimmy Carbone, owner of the currently closed Jimmy's No. 43 on Seventh Street. The campaign is to help him cover medical treatment and other debts. Read about that here.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Johnny Rozsa, since 1999

When I moved here in 1999 I [started] living on Avenue A. I sublet from a friend of mine and I had that place on Avenue A for two years. It was a railroad apartment and it was really nice. I didn’t need an AC because there was a magical through breeze. When I moved out I found my present flat accidentally.

This apartment and the apartment next door were both available. The apartment next door had a basement. Mine has a sunroom, so I went for the greenhouse. That’s been there for like 30 or 40 years. I brought all of my stuff over, I just walked it all over from the other apartment.

What do you love about your apartment?

Even though it is tiny, it is warm and cozy in the winter. It’s got 12-foot ceilings ... so it doesn’t feel cramped. And it’s only me. I don’t need to be in LA in a 12-room mansion — I don’t need that. I’ve had that and it’s OK that I don’t have that now. I also had a little cabin in the woods in the middle of Beverly Hills. It was sort of like this.

What I love about this is I have the backyard and I have the Park in the front. Look at how quiet it is. I don’t hear sirens, I don’t hear anything. It’s quiet. It is dead quiet. I’ve got so many pluses. I don’t feel like I’m in New York City — I feel like I’m upstate somewhere.

It’s nice to have the greenhouse so the lemon tree will survive the winter. I love the mourning doves, hundreds of them, every day. It’s just like living in the country.