August Citizen crime watch

A few reports from August appeared on the Citizen app...  Some are serious; others fall on the lighter side — whether for the wording ("people disputing") or the fact that someone actually went to the trouble of filing a police report. We include these not to poke fun, but to give a fuller picture of what gets logged in the neighborhood...

The song of the summer, 46 years later

As a vinyl enthusiast, I always see what's playing on the turntable at C&B Café, 178 E. Seventh St., just west of Avenue B.

Earlier this summer, during a coffee break, the needle dropped on Supertramp's classic 1979 album, Breakfast in America. 

The opening track, "Gone Hollywood," was playing while I waited inside. It stuck in my head and refused to leave, no matter what else I tried to put on repeat.

So, I've stopped fighting it and officially declared it the Summer Song of 2025.

It's just heartbreaking
I should have known that it would let me down
It's just a mind-aching
I used to dream about this town

 

6 posts from August

A mini month in review... with an end-of-summer look at the mucky tree well of Avenue A. 

• EVG Q&A: Darren Aronofsky on 'Caught Stealing' and revisiting the East Village of 1998 (Aug. 28) 

• At the prayer vigil for Most Holy Redeemer (Aug. 25) 

• Deliveristas confront new hurdles after 11th Street bike sweep (Aug. 20) 

• We talked with the owner of Corner Bistro about what to expect from the East Village outpost (Aug. 18) 

• The entire northern section of East River Park, including the running track, closes on Sept. 8 (Aug.13) 

• At the opening of Lidl on the Lower East Side (Aug. 4)

Reports: Early morning shooting injures 3 outside Lillian Wald Houses

The NYPD is investigating an early-morning shooting outside NYCHA's Lillian Wald Houses on Sixth Street near Avenue D. 

Police and media reports say three men standing outside the complex were hit when someone opened fire around 3:30 a.m.

EMTs took the victims — ages 35, 37 and 41 — to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where they are expected to recover.

Police have not released a full description of the gunman. Tips can be shared confidentially with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or online. 

Find coverage at: 

• The Post

• CBS 2

• NBC 4

• ABC 7

• PIX11 

• The Daily News

Screengrab via ABC 7/YouTube

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (and reading Steve Cannon's "Groove Bang and Jive Around" on 7th Street. Pic by Stacie Joy) ... Get the Week in Review via email every Sunday. Details.

 • EVG Q&A: Darren Aronofsky on 'Caught Stealing' and revisiting the East Village of 1998 (Thursday, Aug. 28) 

• Police looking for 3 suspects in Sunday afternoon slashing on Astor Place (Tuesday, Aug. 26)

• At the prayer vigil for Most Holy Redeemer (Monday, Aug. 25) 

• East Village musician Jesse Malin’s memoir, 'Almost Grown,' due April 2026 (Friday, Aug. 29) 

• Carlina Rivera officially steps down from her City Council seat (Monday, Aug. 25) 

• Gas service restored at C&B Café on 7th Street (Wednesday, Aug. 27) 

• How to contribute art to a memorial zine for the old East River Park (Wednesday, Aug. 27)

• IDLES pack into Night Club 101 for surprise East Village set (Saturday, Aug. 30)

• Openings: Mayberry Marketplace on 1st Avenue (Friday, Aug. 29) 

• Migrating warbler found dead outside Steiner East Village on 11th Street (Friday, Aug. 29) 

• Farewell to the East Village Rite Aid (Monday, Aug. 25)

• We like Puzzled Panther, one of the bands playing Tompkins Square Park on Sept. 7 (Friday, Aug. 29) 

• Sushi and coffee for the vacant storefronts at 106 Avenue B (Wednesday, Aug. 27) 

And it is jacket weather (photo by Stacie Joy)...

JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s infamous fight restaged in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The cast and crew for Ryan Murphy's series "American Love Story," which chronicles the love lives of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, returned to the East Village on Thursday. 

The location: Tompkins Square Park, standing in for Washington Square Park, where the couple was seen in a very public fight in 1996. The crews restaged that here. (The Daily Mail has some fight pics from Thursday.)

Crews also brought in some early 1990s trash cans...

Why film in this neighborhood? Bessette reportedly lived in the East Village when she first moved to NYC in 1989. 

And here's Paul Anthony Kelly playing JFK Jr. in the series, due out on FX next Valentine's Day.

Small blaze quickly doused on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

We received several reader reports yesterday of a fire at the Avenue A and St. Mark's Place entrance to Tompkins Square Park, which occurred early in the evening (6:45). 

We heard conflicting reports about the cause, with several people stating that it was the cardboard remnants from a small encampment that had been here.

While the small blaze drew some dramatic moments, it was put out with a fire extinguisher a minute or two before the FDNY arrived. 

Thanks to the reader for these pics!

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival keeps swinging in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Heading back to last Sunday for a few scenes from the annual Charlie Park Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square... where there was another appreciative crowd for this year's event.

This year's lineup included Bill Charlap and Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gary Bartz and NTU Troop, and the Jazz Gallery Allstars. 

We may be jazz novices, but we always enjoy the day in the neighborhood...

The festival, which started in Tompkins Square Park in 1993, holds a significant place in the jazz community. 

It takes place near or on Parker's birthday on Aug. 29. Additional dates were added in Harlem in 2000, further expanding its reach. 

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950 to 1954. That residential building between Ninth Street and 10th Street is landmarked.

Key Food gets the fine art treatment on Avenue A

Photos by Stacie Joy 

We met local artist Steve Cosentino today at the southwest corner of Avenue A and Fourth Street, working on an oil painting of Key Food, often referred to as the Palace of Versailles of the East Village.

 

This is a work in progress. The light changed, so he started packing up for the day... and will be back soon to finish the painting.

IDLES pack into Night Club 101 for surprise East Village set

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

On Wednesday night, IDLES stormed the small stage at Night Club 101 on Avenue A for a surprise set.

The English punk band — more accustomed in recent years to playing larger venues like Fenway Park, where they'll be on Sept 7 — tore through 12 songs in a sweaty and full-tilt show. 

And it didn't matter that they had a smaller-than-usual stage — the band simply incorporated the show floor alongside concertgoers...

The performance tied into the group's collaboration with East Village-based director Darren Aronofsky. When developing his latest film, "Caught Stealing" — which opened yesterday and stars Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz — Aronofsky turned to IDLES, his favorite band, to help shape the movie's high-energy sonic identity and 1998 setting. 

Drawing inspiration from the 1990s New York punk scene that drives the film, IDLES contributed four original tracks and recorded the full score with composer Rob Simonsen. (He worked with Aronofsky on "The Whale.") The soundtrack includes their take on Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" — covered by The Clash — along with new originals such as "Rabbit Run" and instrumentals titled "Tompkins Square Park" and "6th and A." (No instrumentals on Wednesday — the band stayed in loud-and-fast mode.) 

Aside from a few members of the press (EVG included), the secret set was the payoff for a "Caught Stealing"-related scavenger hunt. A few vintage payphones, suddenly back on city corners, like outside the Second Avenue F stop, offered cryptic directions that led from one receiver to another.

The trail ended at A-1 Record Shop on Sixth Street, where participants walked out with paper tickets to see The Idles at the Pyramid Club, the former legendary venue at 101 Avenue A, on Aug. 27, 1998. (Thankfully, everyone in the audience seemed to be an IDLES fan.)

A replica of the Pyramid Club sign appeared briefly above the entrance during the show...

Aronofsky was in attendance (here with Zoë Kravitz) and Austin Butler (who can be spotted in the crowd in one of the above photos).

Following the set, local photographer and IDLES superfan Krys Fox, who took part in the scavenger hunt, scored Joe Talbot's signature inside a heart on his bicep. The autograph soon became a tattoo, courtesy of Andromeda Studio on St. Mark's Place. He also had the band sign his shirt.

As Fox shared on Instagram: "I love it so much, it will always serve as a reminder of my strength, perseverance, and of how the band helps pump me full of love, guts, and queer power."

And three of five IDLES on Avenue A...

The band released this montage from the night on Instagram...

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by I D L E S (@idlesband)

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• EVG Q&A: Darren Aronofsky on 'Caught Stealing' and revisiting the East Village of 1998

Someone tore a tree from the ground and left it in a 1st Avenue trash can

For the "why-we-can't-have-nice-things" files. 

Remember the freshly planted tree on the west side of First Avenue, between Ninth Street and 10th Street, that we mentioned a few weeks ago? See that hole in the ground in the top photo? 

Someone yanked the tree out and tossed it into the corner trash can.

Klayer tried his best to replant it, but the tree will need some more soil...

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• A tree grows on 1st Avenue

Saturday's opening shot

A morning view along Second Street outside the New York City Marble Cemetery between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

It is 58 out just before 9 a.m. ... Accuweather says the next few days will be sunny and pleasant with highs in the upper 70s.

Whisper to a 'Sting'

 

NYC band Puzzled Panther will be headlining the next (and last for 2025) Show Brain show in Tompkins Square Park on Sept. 7. 

The video here is for "Sting of Iodine (Panacea)" from the recently released EP Fits of Serenity (Casa Gogol Records).

Migrating warbler found dead outside Steiner East Village on 11th Street

An EVG reader shares news of this sad discovery.

Yesterday, the body of a migrating warbler was found on the sidewalk on 11th Street next to Steiner East Village, the 7-story, block-long condoplex on Avenue A...

According to the reader, "It likely collided with one of the windows."