'Gold' standard

Here's the French dream-pop band Marble Arch with "Gold" from their spring release "Children of the Slump."

Shocker: Starbucks on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place closed 'due to electrical issues'

Updated: 7/13: They are back open.

The Starbucks outpost on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place is closed for the moment... signage points to an electrical issue...



Meanwhile, in non-electrical news, Starbucks will no longer sell copies of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or USA Today at its stores nationwide starting in September, per the Post.

Updated 7/13

CLOSED AGAIN!





Thanks to Steven for the photos!

The sandbox in the Tompkins Square Park playground is nearly out of the all-important sand

The sandbox in the playground along Avenue A and Ninth Street in Tompkins Square Park is looking a little light on the sand these days.



The sand level is low enough that you can see the foundation...





Parent Choresh Wald, who shared these photos, noted: "It is the lowest I've ever seen it."

No word on what happened to the sand. Stolen? Eaten? Climate changed?

'Aya of Yop City' screens for free tonight in Tompkins Square Park via Films on the Green

The 2019 Films on the Green series — focusing this year on female directors in French and Francophone cinema — returns to Tompkins Square Park tonight for a free screening.

The selection is "Aya of Yop City," an animated film (based on the graphic novel) from 2013 directed by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. It was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film at the 39th César Awards.

The synopsis!

In warm Ivory Coast's working-class district of Abidjan or Yop City, the 19-year-old aspiring doctor, Aya, dreams of finishing her studies despite her father's opposition. But, Aya lives in a poor West African township during the 1970s, where getting married to a rich man and starting a family is every girl's aspiration — at least, that's what Aya's best friends, Bintou and Adjoua, are hoping for. Under Yopougon's bright sun, three girls, three different destinies and three parallel lives intertwine, as life keeps going.

And the trailer...



The film will start at dusk (give or take a few minutes). There was a nice turnout for last week's screening of "Tomboy" in the Park...

Beat happening: the 7th annual Nuyorican Poets Café block party is tomorrow (Saturday!)

Nuyorican Poets Café is hosting its seventh annual block party tomorrow (July 13) on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Per their invite: "The Block Party will feature exciting activities including a DJ, bouncy houses, sumo wrestling, inflatable boxing, open mic, poetry, as well as free food and refreshments! Come join us as we come together as a community for a day of summer fun!"

You can check out the 2018 edition of the block party via these photos by EVG contributor Stacie Joy.

Recent openings: Tsukimi on 10th Street

[Photo by Steven]

Tsukimi opened in late June at 228 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

This Kaiseki-inspired restaurant's menu, via executive chef Takanori Akiyama, offers an 11-course tasting menu. Here's more via a preview at Eater:

The meal can start with nori and fluke, progress to a dish with bluefin tuna, goldeneye snapper, and bigfin reef squid, and end with olive oil yogurt, according to a sample menu (see it below). Of the 11 dishes, three will be sweet. They’ll all be served within a 14-seat space that’s divided in half by an aisle, with two seven-seat counters facing each other, a space designed by Brooklyn-based Studio Tack.

The outside doesn't look like much... but! The restaurant's interior merited a write-up at ArchPaper earlier this week...



Akiyama's NYC credits include Dieci, which was the previous tenant in this space.

The restaurant is open Wednesday-Sunday for a 7 p.m. seating. After Labor Day, seating times will be 6 and 9 p.m.

Taking the last slice

Thanks to Jess Ruliffson for sharing this photo from earlier today on Chrystie Street near East Houston...

File under Spirit Animal

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

Through the years of the 4th Street Photo Gallery with Alex Harsley's 'Entanglements'

[Photo from 2014 by James Maher]

Alex Harsley, the proprietor of the 4th Street Photo Gallery and a neighborhood resident since 1965, is the subject of a new exhibit at the Sheen Center.

Here's more what you can expect starting tonight through Aug. 4:

"Entanglements" is an ode to a community inextricably linked. For nearly 50 years, Alex Harsley has remained fixed; bearing witness to the symbiosis of life outside his 4th Street Photo Gallery. Through his classic, award-winning photography and conceptualized mixed-media pieces, time becomes textured, non-linear as the images bob between a romanticized 1970s East Village and an aged, yet still vibrant and diverse, ecosystem of present day.

Scenes revolve around the doorway and community of The 4​th Street Photo Gallery, the non-profit started by Harsley in the 1970s as a refuge for underrepresented artists, and, as Holland Cotter wrote, “he has made the city a primary subject of his classical brand of ‘street photography.’”

And...

The experience of "Entanglements" becomes a portal to the hidden connections and patterns that exist in all of our lives. It serves not just as nostalgia in remembering the past, but also as a reminder that these stories are still alive in the people, each who passed through this one East Village block, and continue to tangle themselves in love, change and community.

"Entanglements" opens tonight (July 11) at 6 in the Gallery at the Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker St. just west of the Bowery. Harsley will also be giving a "talkback" tonight at 7:30.

Meanwhile, you can read our two-part interview with Harsley, who turns 81 this year, from 2014 right here and here. And go visit his shop at 67 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

P.S.

And even if you don't know Alex, you will recognize his Dodge GTS Dart with traveling companions...


[James Maher]

Irving Plaza is now closed for renovations

[Photo by @thegrrlmorgan via @IrvingPlaza]

Irving Plaza is now officially closed for an eight-month rehab. The 1,200-capacity music venue on Irving Place and 15th Street closed after a show Sunday night featuring headliner Anberlin.

As for the renovations, here's Billboard with the story from this past April:

[T]he renovations at Irving Plaza will be overseen by Live Nation clubs and theaters division and include revamps of the lobby area and the music hall, new bars on all levels, the addition of a downstairs VIP lounge and remodeling of the mezzanine including a new box-seating section configuration.

Live Nation officials have said the venue will reopen in the first quarter of 2020.

There was an Irving Place Appreciation Night on July 1, a free show featuring Robert Gordon as well as local bands ElectraJets, The Trash Bags, Beechwood and The Advertisers.


[The Trash Bags]


[Beechwood]


[The Advertisers — the first band on the bill]

The venue has been in use for concerts the past 41 years. The Polish Army Veterans of America have owned the building since 1948. Here's more history via the Irving Plaza website:

Originally, the building was four separate brownstones, which were eventually combined into a hotel in the 1870s. In 1927, the building was gutted and turned into a ballroom-style theater and christened Irving Plaza.

Over the next few decades Irving Plaza would serve as a union meeting house, a performance space for folk dance troupes, and a Polish Army Veteran community center, as well as a venue for the Peoples Songs Hootenannies with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

In 1978, Irving Plaza was converted into a rock music venue ...

As for more recent history, here are some bands that I've seen at the Irving Plaza in recent years... courtesy of the framed posters at the venue...

Closings: Pie by the Pound wraps up 17 years on 4th Avenue

[Image via Facebook]

After 17 years of selling pizza by its weight, the appropriately named Pie by the Pound has closed on Fourth Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.

June 30 was the shop's last day.

Here's part of the message from owner Jeffrey Reiss on Facebook:

It is time to say goodbye😭🙁😢. I want to thank the local community and beyond for supporting us and who have been our fans until the end. I will deeply miss the vegetarian, vegan and especially the Gluten Free Communities. Such beautiful memories of all the families and kids and my staff....that will last a lifetime. I will miss this place. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

Love,
Jeffrey

A regular told us that the lease was up, and Reiss wanted to pursue other opportunities.

H/T Kat!

Kikoo Sushi's second 1st Avenue outpost is now open

As noted back in the spring, Kikoo Sushi, the all-you-can-eat specialist currently at 141 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, was opening a second outpost at No. 210 between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Anyway, that second location is up and running now.

The new restaurant also marks the Great First Avenue Sushi Merger of 2019 as Kumo Sushi is also part of this operation... which means the former Kumo space on the southeast corner of First Avenue at 13th Street is now vacant...





A reliable source told us that Kumo's lease was up ... and that for now, Kikoo will continue on at 141 First Ave.

As for No. 210, that retail space was home to a Papa John's (2010-2018) before the sushi rolled in.

H/T Steven!