Friday, September 25, 2020
Soak up the 'Sun'
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Tats Cru pay tribute to Bittman 'Bimbo' Rivas on 2nd Street
Save the date: The 9th annual Lungs Harvest Arts Festival is Oct. 3-4
It's 2020 and we are all stuck inside somewhere ... This year's festival is dedicated expressing our situation through art ... sharing the reality of what is going on in our lives
All the exhibits will take place behind the garden fences with the audiences on the sidewalks.
The audience will be moving, fluid. The art stationary. We want to foster our wild variety of sentiments through our art. We are all politically bent, given the times and election. Vote with your ART too. Let people know how you feel.
This as an Art exhibit and the gardens are the Green Museum.It's perfect for touring audiences to visit and enjoy our community gardens.
'We're just hoping for some miracle'
[Nomad photo from June by Stacie Joy]
Nomad, a North African and Mediterranean restaurant in the East Village, shut down in March after the pandemic engulfed New York City, leaving its owner unable to pay the full $11,500 rent for months.
After opening for outdoor dining in June, the owner, Mehenni Zebentout, has struggled to pay 70 to 80 percent of the rent. But he had to cut his staff from nine full-time employees to four part-time workers. And his landlord still wants Mr. Zebentout to pay what he owes from the spring.
"We're just hoping for some miracle," he said. "I believe, according to my experience, two out of three restaurants will close by December, and I'll be one of them if there's no help from the city or the government."
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Breonna Taylor
Cults classic: East Village-based duo on the release of their fourth record Host
Save the date: Help clean up Tompkins Square Park on Oct. 10
Here are more details via an email from Young:
As many of you know, the city and the Parks Dept. have had massive budget cuts. Recently I have been assigned to work many other locations, leaving Tompkins vulnerable to trash and weeds.
So with that being said, we are hoping to gather as many folks as we can for Saturday, Oct. 10. We will meet at the main office in Tompkins at 11 a.m., have some coffee and donuts, and then concentrate on areas of the park together. Bring a mask and gloves. Feel free to bring any gardening supplies you prefer —otherwise we will have tools and such.
Eliza's Local has closed on St. Mark's Place
Eliza's Local has closed at 2 St. Mark's Place just east of Third Avenue.
An all-too-familiar set of circumstances are behind the bar-restaurant's closure: "Unfortunately, we had no choice with the current situation, our landlord and no inside dining," a rep told us.
Eliza's had been open in the early days of spring, selling beer to go (and giving away bread). They later had some expanded outdoor dining space with the closure of St. Mark's Place on weekends for Street Feast. Still, it wasn't nearly enough volume to overcome the drop-off in business.
The bar, which opened in December 2018, was named for Elizabeth Hamilton (aka "Eliza") co-founder and deputy director of the first private orphanage in New York City. She was the wife of Alexander Hamilton. She lived next door at 4 St. Mark's Place in what was later known as the Hamilton-Holly House.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
More tributes to RBG
Comedy Club owners get serious about plans to allow them to reopen
A visit with Urban Russian Doll NYC
Text and photos by Stacie Joy
Over the past few months I’d been watching with interest as artist Urban Russian Doll NYC created her large murals around the neighborhood.
You go by the name Urban Russian Doll NYC — why did you choose that as your non de plume?
Though my parents are originally from Ukraine and have multiple ethnicities within them, they moved to Moscow before I was born. At the time, Ukraine and Russia were still considered USSR.
Right before COVID-19 hit the city, I went to an art show curated by fl00d at 198 Allen St. That day, I met Kristy Calabro, who introduced me to Manny, owner of the Doggy-Sitters Club, Lecrue Eyebrows, Token, who curated the event, and other amazing artists. I became friends with many of them.
What has the experience of working in the neighborhood been like? How do the locals react to your work?
After painting a couple of murals around the neighborhood, I want to say that streets are streets. They teach you where to be careful and where to relax. I had different, but mostly great experiences painting in the neighborhood. I learned not only about the wall painting flow, but also that once the neighbors get to know you, they become your family.
Through the message “Why Wait? Love Now,” my art represents the transition from vulnerability to strength — a quality that all brave souls possess. As we emotionally evolve, we expose ourselves to diverse levels of emotional transcendence and open up to engagements with others, which is a courageous and an extremely vital thing to do.
Renovations underway on the new Foxface Commissary on Avenue A
In some positive-for-a-change local restaurant news, the owners of Foxface recently started renovations at their new storefront at 189 Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street.
East Village residents Ori Kushnir and Sivan Lahat, who opened the hit sandwich shop at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place in late 2018, will keep that outpost.
At 189 Avenue A, they're planning on Foxface Provisions — a smokehouse, tasting room and preservation commissary. (Read more about it here.)
During the start of the renovations, Kushnir reported finding some remains of a previous tenant — Vampire Freaks (RIP 2012)!
View this post on InstagramUrban archaeology - ceiling from the @vampirefreaks period
A post shared by Ori Kushnir (@orikushnir) on
Most recently, 189 Avenue A was home to Harry & Ida's Meat and Supply Co.