The 2-hour lines for Octoberfest at Zum Schneider this weekend

...and people dress the part...



Octoberfest here runs through Sunday.

White stripes

11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Michael Shenker, 1955-2010

Longtime East Village homesteader Michael Shenker has passed away..... Friends placed a tribute in front of the former squat at 209 Seventh St., which he helped restore starting in 1987.

Here's a passage on the former squats by Lincoln Anderson in The Villager from 2009...

Michael Shenker came to live in the East Village in 1970, a 15-year-old, half-Jewish kid from Long Island. His model mother had been the Ipana toothpaste lady in TV commercials, which sometimes featured cameos by him and his brother. But things at home weren’t going well, and Shenker decided he had to get out.

The bohemian East Village, with its rocking music scene at the Fillmore East, naturally drew Shenker, an aspiring musician. At first, he was homeless, hanging out and crashing at night with members of a tough Puerto Rican gang. Working odd jobs — one saw him cleaning McSorley’s urinals — he eventually managed to get his own place. But the storefront he was living in had a fire, and then his rent quadrupled in the early 1980s, and he found himself again facing homelessness.

One day, he recalled, as he was sitting in Life Café, “This weird girl Natasha I used to play chess with looked over at me and said, ‘Mike, have you ever heard of squatting?’”

[Top photo by Fly; bottom photo by Caroline Debevec — both via The Villager]

He was also featured in New York from 1996. You can read that piece here.



I asked a few of his friends for comments:

Eden Brower:
I've known Michael since I was around 19 years old ... One thing about Michael is that before Ray's was going to be visited by the Board of Health for a few violations...Michael was there and helped with tiling the floor and cleaning. He also helped many of the squats with getting their electricity done. I'm sad that he's gone.

Barbara Robin Lee:
I'm going to remember him joyfully playing the piano with gusto and lots of talent. I loved his love for music and art. He was an amazing electrician. He was a strident political activist. He was a lover, a saucy flirt in the first degree. He knew no fear. That's about all I can say right now. Above all else, he was a good sober FRIEND!

Cops shutter Webster Hall during "the largest paint party in the world"

So last night, Webster Hall hosted DayGlow, billed as "the largest paint party in the world."


[Via]

Apparently it was quite large... so large, that we hear the NYPD swarmed the club.... giving everyone the boot... and shutting down 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. Per DJ David Berrie, who played at the event, on Twitter: "Wowwww webster hall shut down by cops that's is by farr the most packed I've ever seen webster."

Which, as EV Grieve reader Eric described, "lead to 'Douche On Parade' on Fourth Avenue."

Get your pet giraffe blessed today

I truly do like these flyers.

A few scenes from fall (earnest edition)

Meaning, there won't be a gag photo at the end of some dude throwing up on my front door in an Octoberfest hat or anything...

2 windows on 13th Street

Between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Of course! Douchebag Q and A

Heh. Yeah, I know that it's the movie... still, this gave me a chuckle...




And I like "The Town Douchebag" all together....

Get your pet wolf blessed today

It could be a dog, but I think it's wolf. Good dog clipart is hard to find.

Brainiacs

I give the edge to the Daily News today for evoking a 1950s B-movie quality. In any event, an awful story.

Scene from a sidewalk sale

Your chance to see two films on the gentrification in East Harlem and on the Lower East Side

From the EV Grieve inbox...includes an offer for you

Tuesday, October 5, 6:30 PM

In Danger of Extinction: Gentrification in East Harlem and on the Lower East Side

Residents of these two diverse, vibrant neighborhoods have long dealt with the pressures of gentrification and have struggled for affordability. Their story is told in two recent documentaries. Join the filmmakers for a screening and discussion of "The Lower East Side: An Endangered Place" by Robert Weber and "Whose Barrio?" by Ed Morales and Laura Rivera, with opening remarks by The Honorable Melissa Mark-Viverito, New York City Council, District 8.

Co-sponsored by the office of the New York City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito and East Harlem Preservation. This program is presented as part of the ongoing series The Urban Forum: New York Neighborhoods, Preservation and Development

Reservations required: 917-492-3395 or programs@mcny.org

$6 Museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members

$6 when you mention E.V. Grieve

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street

And a trailer for you.... (we had an item on the film in June 2009)



And the ticket price is double if you yell Woo!

Firefighter subdues cellphone thief on Second Street

I've heard reports of a rash of cellphone thefts of late around the neighborhood... (including Slum Goddess.)

The Post has this story today:

A firefighter leaped into crime-fighter mode in the East Village last night -- helping a damsel in distress whose cellphone was snatched by a sticky-fingered thief, authorities said.

Vinny Brennan, 34, who also is a Marine Corps reservist, heard a cry for help near his Ladder 11 firehouse on East 2nd Street around 7:30 p.m.

"I saw a man running towards us on the sidewalk and my Marine intuition kicked in and I decided this one has got to be stopped," he said.

Brennan, who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, tackled the suspect and his fellow firefighters helped hold him until cops arrived.

Steven Varkony, 32, of The Bronx, was booked for robbery, cops said.

Despite hearing about so many cellphone thefts, NO ONE has tried to take mine...

The Blake Lively photos that I could have taken yesterday in the East Village if....

...I had a really BIG lens and hung out with the paparazzi for hours ...or vice versa!




On 10th Street and Avenue A yesterday....

[Photos via Just Jared]