New exhibit showcases collection from New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell

Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, a cartoonist for The New Yorker since 2016, is having her first NYC exhibit, opening Thursday night at ArtsClub on Third Street. 

The show also serves as the launch party for her new book, "What Did I Do Today?" 

Some details via the EVG inbox: 

The show: Spanning 10 years of cartooning, Today showcases a collection from New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell about the little things. From small talk to mundane thoughts, Campbell's cartoons, paintings and more focus on finding hilarity in everyday life. 

The book: This illustrated six-month journal helps you find joy, curiosity and your screaming inner voice, with prompts for things you've done, seen, felt and heard each day. Instead of being focused on productivity, the journal is like a retroactive to-do list, inviting you to be naturally creative by writing down the sometimes mundane, sometimes silly, but always interesting parts of your day-to-day life.

In addition, she'll be teaching two workshops at ArtsClub on Jan. 20 and 28. The pitch: "Not only will students learn the basics of cartooning, they'll also be given the tools to find humor and inspiration in your day to day-to-day life and build a routine to discover your creative side." Find more details here.

ArtsClub is at 311 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. The opening-night reception is 6-8 on Thursday.

Sunday's parting shot

Photo by Peter Brownscombe 

On this first day of January, Ray celebrates his birth month at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A near Seventh Street ... as he turns 90 ... 

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a storefront photo from Ink on A)...

• Police arrest suspect connected to the Dec. 19 murder on Avenue A (Monday) 

• Gregg Singer's reign as owner of the former of P.S. 64 is said to be over (Thursday)

• Remembering longtime East Village resident Dr. Kamala Joie Mottl (Friday) 

• O'Flaherty's opening an art gallery at the former UCBeast space on Avenue A (Thursday) 

• Long-vacant 8th Street building where worker died is being offered as a development site (Tuesday) 

• That's all for East Village mainstay Dallas BBQ (Wednesday)

• The city's first legal, regulated adult-use cannabis shop opens on Astor Place (Wednesday ... Thursday) 

• Yo La Tengo celebrates Sun Ra Arkestra at its annual Hanukkah show finale (Tuesday) 

• Pure Wine debuts on 10th Street (Friday) 

• Icicle works: Frozen pipes cause damage to several East Village businesses (Tuesday) 

• 133 Avenue D, co-owned by A-Rod, is on the sales market (Thursday) 

• Sunny's Florist will be closed all of January (Friday) 

• HAGS is reopening on 1st Avenue (Friday) 

• MulchFest begins (Monday)

• Signage alert: Red Onion on 10th Street (Friday)

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A memorial on Avenue A for James Cunningham

There's a small memorial with candles and flowers outside a vacant storefront at 214 Avenue A between 13th Street and 14th Street ... near where police found the body of 51-year-old local resident James Cunningham early morning on Dec. 19.

According to the NYPD and published reports, Cunningham had just left the bar Spike's at 218 Avenue A around 1 a.m. when he bumped into Roland Codrington and his girlfriend on the street. 

Video footage at the scene, police officials said, shows the two men arguing for about 20 seconds before Codrington is seen slashing Cunningham with a knife. NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the two men had no prior connection before Dec. 19. 

Police officials said that the same knife was used in a violent rampage in which Codrington also allegedly killed a doctor in Marcus Garvey Park and assaulted several other people before his arrest on Christmas Eve. 

The Daily News reported that Cunningham was a regular at Spike's, 218 Avenue A ... "who often came into the bar to order a seltzer or soda, never drank alcohol but instead used the bar as a community center." 

One EVG commenter had this to say about Cunningham: "He was my friend for 35 years and was the best type of person. James would have given the last of anything he had so another wouldn't have to go without."

On Dec. 22, Codrington allegedly choked a bartender and stabbed two Good Samaritans at Teddy's Bar and Grill on Second Avenue in East Harlem. Media reports stated that Codrington showed up at the bar with a pit bull and a baseball bat to settle a score. 

Police reportedly used surveillance video from Teddy's to link him to the knife attack on Avenue A. 

Early on Dec. 23, a 60-year-old pediatrician was found dead in Marcus Garvey Park. Police said that Codrington and the victim, Bruce Henry, got into a verbal spat that ended with the doctor being stabbed multiple times. The NYPD's investigation led detectives to Codrington and his girlfriend driving Henry's Mercedes-Benz in the Bronx on Christmas Eve. 

Essing said Codrington faces two counts each of murder and attempted murder and additional charges of second-degree assault and criminal mischief. Codrington had 12 prior arrests, Essing said. 

Codrington reportedly confessed to the crimes, telling police that he tossed the knife used in the crimes into the Hudson River.

Sunday's opening shot

As we first reported last night at midnight, it is now 2023. 

Not sure why someone discarded these — you can technically wear them ALL YEAR. 

And Happy 2023! 

Photo on Ninth Street this morning by Steven...

Saturday's parting shot

The Williamsburg Bridge in the fog today...

The most-viewed EV Grieve posts from 2022

Dallas BBQ menu pic by Stacie Joy 

As we've seen in previous years, posts related to crime and closings were among the most-viewed posts for 2022...

• Dec. 31 is the last day for East Village mainstay Dallas BBQ (Dec. 5) 

• Stuyvesant Street closings official: Angel's Share, Village Yokocho and Sunrise Mart are gone (April 4)

• About those fireworks last night on the East River (Oct. 13) 

• Man found dead with a slash wound to his neck on Avenue A (Dec. 19) 

• Exclusive: This is the new tenant for the former Gem Spa space (Oct. 3) 

• "American Horror Story" brings the porn and 1980s mobiles to 9th Street (July 1) 

• Police: Delivery man slashed in face at 7th Street and Avenue A entrance to Tompkins Square Park (Oct. 6) 

• SantaCon 2022 route revealed (Dec. 8) 

• Lower East Side mainstay El Sombrero has closed (Nov. 30) 

• Basquiat's former loft space on Great Jones is available for lease (Nov. 7) 

The Grassroots Tavern closed on New Year's Eve 2017, and the space is still empty

Here's a look this morning at 20 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

As we mentioned in the fall, the retail spaces now have their fourth broker looking to lease the storefronts.

The Grassroots Tavern was the last business here, closing after service on New Year’s Eve 2017... ending a 42-year run in the lower level. The upstairs tenant, the record store Sounds, shut down in October 2015.

After the Grassroots closed, Bob Precious tried to open a bar-pub here, but those plans never materialized after 18 months. 

As noted, No. 20, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832. It received landmark status in 1971 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

And perhaps in 2023, we'll see a new tenant here.

As a P.S., we were sorry to hear that longtime co-owner Doug "Dougie" Bunton (who always wore the same leather vest!) died back in the spring at age 67. We did not receive any other details about his passing. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• An end of an era at the Grassroots Tavern

• RIP John Leeper

• RIP Bob Spedalere

• 20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold

• Your chance to live in this historic home above the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

• New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

• After 42 years on St. Mark's Place, the Grassroots Tavern closes on New Year's Eve

The Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket is CLOSED this Sunday (New Year's Day!)

In case you have plans to visit the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket tomorrow (Sunday, Jan. 1)... 

Per Grow NYC: "All Greenmarkets, Farmstands, and Fresh Food Box locations closed. No clothing or food scrap collections."

They'll be back on Jan. 8.

H/T Steven

Why you might need to change your New York's Eve plans

Tough news for anyone who was planning to ring in 2023 at Key Food at the strike of midnight. 

ICYMI: Management for the grocery on Avenue A and Fourth posted (with festive signage!) their holiday hours earlier this week... noting a 10 closure tonight, New Year's Eve...

Otherwise, Key is back to its 24/7 schedule. 

Meanwhile, see you in Times Square!

Saturday's opening shots

A post-Christmas moment with Rudolph on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street...

And everyone, please join in one last time... 

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer

and Vixen Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen 

But do you recall The most famous reindeer of all?

Built to 'Still'

 

A top-20 album of the year contender... here's the Irish band Just Mustard with "Still" taken from the May release, Heart Under ...

Remembering Dr. Kamala Joie Mottl

Longtime East Village resident Dr. Kamala Joie Mottl died on Nov. 7. She was 75. 

Her daughter, Legacy Russell, executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen, shared her mother's story with us... it starts with her graduation from the University of Hawaii in 1969 as a writer and editor at the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.

True to her free spirit and open heart, she left to backpack and stay at youth hostels on her own across Europe. After she returned to spend some months living near her sister Tahi in the Boston area, Dr. Mottl began graduate school at New York University, studying psychology and specializing in gerontology. Dr. Mottl's move at that time to a walk-up on Saint Mark's Place at apartment UWG ("Upper Westside Gallery") began her 50-plus year journey and joy in New York City. 

She remained in the same beloved apartment until her final days. Dr. Mottl over the decades became a regular radical fixture on Saint Mark's Place and within the East Village spanning every chapter of its change, an active advocate in organizing for tenant protections with her fellow neighbors across generations, through and beyond the site of 31 Saint Mark's Place.

Critical to her specialty and ongoing investment in her community work and support, Dr. Mottl worked with elders and their families at the Washington Heights Mental Health Center in Harlem and participated in early labor union strikes with the 1199SEIU union.

Dr. Mottl met Harlem-born Black American photographer and community organizer Ernest Russell (1944-2016) in the East Village, a meet-cute that began, as legend has it, when Dr. Mottl was wearing no shoes and strolling in the rainy East Village street. She caught his eye and they struck up an exchange. While the two were initially fond of one another, as Dr. Mottl told it, her heart had not fully made its decision until their first kiss.

Dr. Mottl finished her clinical career in gerontology at Roberto Clemente Community Health Center in the East Village. Thereafter she continued to actively volunteer and participate in elder programming and activities at Stein Senior Center and Sirovich Senior Center for Balanced Living, hosting reading groups, Kwanzaa ceremonies, and, after many years, resuming her viola playing and participating in a seniors-only band that performed in community gardens across the East Village.

She loved, and was loved by, her family, friends and neighbors. An organizer who held central the traditions of Black feminisms, an advocate for the sustainability of Black life across all ages and backgrounds, and a tireless Black creative contributor to the field of psychology and beyond it, Kamala also loved nature, animals (especially her pets Girlie, Piano, Kinky Liberty, and Freaky-Dawn Bubbles), and her neighborhoods that spanned time zones. 

Aloha, Kamala, our cosmic kuuipo. We hope you are having sweet dreams.

Photos courtesy of Legacy Russell

Pure Wine debuts on 10th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy

Pure Wine opened on Wednesday at 86 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. 

Christopher Freund, formerly the head sommelier at Gotham Bar & Grill on 12th Street and Betony on West 57th Street, is the owner of the retail shop.

Freund told us that he was looking to create a store "that is both casual and inviting for customers."

"I have run Michelin-starred restaurant wine and spirit programs, and now am I excited to bring that same level of service, hospitality and education to a neighborhood bottle shop," he said.

The shop is currently open Monday-Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., with a 9 p.m. close on Sundays. 

You can follow Pure Wine on Instagram here.