Sunday, October 24, 2010
Halloween Dog Day Afternoon, of course
Many thanks to Stacie Joy for sharing these photos from yesterday's Halloween Dog Parade in Tompkins Square Park...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park: Halloween Freakfest!
From the EV Grieve inbox...
What: HALLOWEEN FREAKFEST — 3rd annual free punk & variety show in Tompkins Square Park
When: Sunday
Costumes encouraged! Lots of fun surprises TBA!
Produced by Our Lady of Perpetual PMS (GLOB - Gorgeous Ladies of Bloodwrestling) and The SHADOW, NYC's underground newspaper since 1988
Freaky line up in order of appearance:
GREEN HELL (Misfits cover band that's been murdering all your favorite Misfits songs since 2004)
THE HAMBURGLARS (Greasy garage rock from Chicago! Obsessed w/burgers & dressed to thrill like The Hamburglar. Robble Robble!)
JENNIFER BLOWDRYER (LES author/performer)
THE AFTERBIRTH (NYC's Kings -sometimes Queens- of insane/full throttle/gore punk rock!)
NINA SPIERER (young art activist-poet recently featured in The Huffington Post)
THE NON-PROPHETS: (Acoustical side project from NYC punk/everything band Wombat In Combat
FISHERMAN (fresh from his summer residency @ the Coney Island Freak Bar, he plays the world's largest xylophone, but he also plays marimba, log drum, timbales & does birdcalls!)
BALLS N BLOAT (the twisted burlesque tribute to Hall and Oates!)
LONE VEIN (visually stunning in skeleton attire; Day-of-the-Dead aesthetic. An American Gothic, gloom-tune power duo)
KATRIN HIER: (Writer/Performance Artist)
JESSICA DELFINO (the LES's reigning Queen of the Obscene, publicly denounced by the U.S. Catholic League)
SKUM CITY (stellar NYC hardcore punk outfit decrying the demise of NYC, & putting what remains loud & in your face/ears/orifices, etc!
[Photos via Our Lady of Perpetual PMS]
3 things to do in Tompkins Square Park today
There are other things that you can do too, but you need a flyer...
The Halloween Dog Parade!
The fall fair!
A great free concert!
The Halloween Dog Parade!
The fall fair!
A great free concert!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Reader comments: "we freaks will be here to forgive you"
With this ... I'm going to start highlighting comments on a regular basis... Very often, comments here deserve their own posts... As always, thank you for chiming in and being part of this conversation...
From yesterday's lively thread about the Halloween night protest at Tompkins Square Park... I give you Vagabond Beaumont...
To all of those who moved into the Loisaida and were expecting the Upper East Side.... Loisaida was a place for those who wanted to live in a different way and not be harassed by outsiders or even looked at as outsiders at all... The Loisaida was a place for the freaks to gather and rub up against one another... It was a place that not only respected difference but celebrated and encouraged it... It was a community of freaks banding together to create a freak community of immense diversity...
This tribe of freaks coming together is not much different from the waves of waves of immigration of various ethnic groups that came and continue to come to NYC... Those immigrant groups looked for ethnic neighborhoods where they could feel safe and not feel like outsiders... The Jews did it, the Italians did it, the Germans did it, the Polish did it, the Chinese did it, the Puerto Ricans did it, even the African Americans (who were not immigrants) did it...
The freaks of the Loisaida were following in a tradition of gathering in a way to protect themselves and to have a place of their own... The diversity of the Loisaida and the commodification of what came out of the Loisaida (Spoken Word, Punk, Hip-Hop, Graffiti, Avant-Garde Theater, etc...) made the Loisaida a cool place for non-freaks to want to live...
So the non-freaks move in - in their 20's and because the Loisaida is a place of tolerance the non-freaks are welcome... Then the non-freaks get into their 30's and start getting married and having kids and instead of renting a studio in a 5th floor walk-up tenement they buy a $1.2 mil. 2 bedroom condo and all of a sudden what was cool @ 20 is now an annoyance @ 30 and by the time the non-freaks (who were welcomed by the Loisiaida) are 40 they are calling the cops on the freaks because of the noise and complaining to politicians about the deteriorating conditions of "community"...
The majority who live in this city now are people who want don't want freaks around... Don't want them to have a place... Don't want them to exist... Are wiping out the places where they gather and live... It happened in Soho, it happened in the West Village, it happened/is happening in Williamsburg, in Harlem, in the South Bronx... It seems that as fast as the freaks find a place the non-freaks find a way to strangle the life out of it...
But one day when NYC has finally paved it's path over us freaks and the entire city becomes a safe respected shopping mall... Then you non-freaks will have what you always wanted... A suburb without a lawn and a shopping mall @ your doorstep...
NYC the most vital and exciting and diverse collection of freaks in the world will not be able to create and as a result of that the non-freaks will not have the fruits of these freaks to commodify. Because the freaks will not exist... And you non-freaks will have to find another way to pay that $1.2mil. condo mortgage...
When you default on that mortgage and your the system starts to crumble for you and that condo building becomes an abandoned building... The freaks that were in hiding will show up... Squat your $1.2 mil. condo and generate fruits once again...
The Loisaida is not yours... You are passing through... Remember that the next time you call the puh-leez or the politrixters to complain... Your kind will not remain... And not because we freaks are going to do anything about it or ever had the power to do anything about it... You will destroy yourselves, you need no help from us... But don't worry... we freaks will be here to forgive you of your past transgressions and show you how to live another way...
[Photo by John Penley]
From yesterday's lively thread about the Halloween night protest at Tompkins Square Park... I give you Vagabond Beaumont...
To all of those who moved into the Loisaida and were expecting the Upper East Side.... Loisaida was a place for those who wanted to live in a different way and not be harassed by outsiders or even looked at as outsiders at all... The Loisaida was a place for the freaks to gather and rub up against one another... It was a place that not only respected difference but celebrated and encouraged it... It was a community of freaks banding together to create a freak community of immense diversity...
This tribe of freaks coming together is not much different from the waves of waves of immigration of various ethnic groups that came and continue to come to NYC... Those immigrant groups looked for ethnic neighborhoods where they could feel safe and not feel like outsiders... The Jews did it, the Italians did it, the Germans did it, the Polish did it, the Chinese did it, the Puerto Ricans did it, even the African Americans (who were not immigrants) did it...
The freaks of the Loisaida were following in a tradition of gathering in a way to protect themselves and to have a place of their own... The diversity of the Loisaida and the commodification of what came out of the Loisaida (Spoken Word, Punk, Hip-Hop, Graffiti, Avant-Garde Theater, etc...) made the Loisaida a cool place for non-freaks to want to live...
So the non-freaks move in - in their 20's and because the Loisaida is a place of tolerance the non-freaks are welcome... Then the non-freaks get into their 30's and start getting married and having kids and instead of renting a studio in a 5th floor walk-up tenement they buy a $1.2 mil. 2 bedroom condo and all of a sudden what was cool @ 20 is now an annoyance @ 30 and by the time the non-freaks (who were welcomed by the Loisiaida) are 40 they are calling the cops on the freaks because of the noise and complaining to politicians about the deteriorating conditions of "community"...
The majority who live in this city now are people who want don't want freaks around... Don't want them to have a place... Don't want them to exist... Are wiping out the places where they gather and live... It happened in Soho, it happened in the West Village, it happened/is happening in Williamsburg, in Harlem, in the South Bronx... It seems that as fast as the freaks find a place the non-freaks find a way to strangle the life out of it...
But one day when NYC has finally paved it's path over us freaks and the entire city becomes a safe respected shopping mall... Then you non-freaks will have what you always wanted... A suburb without a lawn and a shopping mall @ your doorstep...
NYC the most vital and exciting and diverse collection of freaks in the world will not be able to create and as a result of that the non-freaks will not have the fruits of these freaks to commodify. Because the freaks will not exist... And you non-freaks will have to find another way to pay that $1.2mil. condo mortgage...
When you default on that mortgage and your the system starts to crumble for you and that condo building becomes an abandoned building... The freaks that were in hiding will show up... Squat your $1.2 mil. condo and generate fruits once again...
The Loisaida is not yours... You are passing through... Remember that the next time you call the puh-leez or the politrixters to complain... Your kind will not remain... And not because we freaks are going to do anything about it or ever had the power to do anything about it... You will destroy yourselves, you need no help from us... But don't worry... we freaks will be here to forgive you of your past transgressions and show you how to live another way...
[Photo by John Penley]
Halloween protest in Tompkins Square Park no longer includes a midnight march
Speaking of the Halloween protest in Tompkins Square Park.... John Penley left a comment on the post saying there would no longer be a midnight march to anyone's apartment... However harmless the intention may have been, that element of the protest left some readers uneasy... As he wrote: "Just to show that I do listen to what people say ... I am not going to lead a march..." You can read the full comment here.
Tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park
Until then, a little Iconicide for your sound meters!
We'll be back later with details on Sunday's show — HALLOWEEN FREAKFEST, the 3rd annual free punk & variety show produced by Our Lady of Perpetual PMS and The SHADOW.
Flowers stolen, Christmas ruined?
You may have seen this Epic Urban Etiquette Sign over at Melanie's... anyway, here we are on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...
...where a 4-year-old has to learn the harsh realities of stealing....
...and there's an addendum.
Plant thief, redeem yourself!
...where a 4-year-old has to learn the harsh realities of stealing....
...and there's an addendum.
Plant thief, redeem yourself!
Bingo-ween tonight at ABC No Rio
From the good people at ABC No Rio:
Books Through Bars Annual Bingo Fundraiser
[Bingo + Halloween = BINGO-WEEN]
WHEN: Tonight @ 7pm
WHERE: ABC No Rio. 156 Rivington St. Lower East Side
Featuring SISTER LOUD MELISSA and D.J. “No Flag” D. Powell
Join Books Through Bars for our annual Bingo Fundraiser!
Books Through Bars provides free reading materials to people incarcerated across America — we're an all-volunteer collective housed in borrowed space, meaning our only overhead costs are postage and packing materials.
Prizes include: $100 tattoo from NY Adorned, IFC year-long membership, magnificent meals at Pure Food & Wine and Caravan of Dreams, sex toys from Babeland!, accordion serenade, membership at Anthology Film Archives, massage, knitted goods, Film Aficionado membership at BAM, Film Forum membership, good eats from Foodswings, tickets to the Rubin Museum, graphic novel package, and more! Costumes encouraged.
Free entry; $1 per card to play. Beverages will be available.
ALL PROCEEDS used to buy postage to send free books to prisoners.
For more info , please visit Books Through Bars
Why there were fire trucks outside the Christodora House last night
Fire trucks lined up on Avenue B last night a little after 9... here between Ninth Street and 10th Street, in front of the Christodora House... Bob Arihood was on the scene ... he passed along the photos and a narrative...
"... apparently a burning cigarette lodged itself in a sidewalk expansion joint and started a smoldering fire in some combustable packing or form spacer material. Locating the smoldering smoke-producing ember which was kept burning by the natural upward draft of the tall Christodora building took some time. FDNY personnel finally located the burning ember and extingushed it."
"... apparently a burning cigarette lodged itself in a sidewalk expansion joint and started a smoldering fire in some combustable packing or form spacer material. Locating the smoldering smoke-producing ember which was kept burning by the natural upward draft of the tall Christodora building took some time. FDNY personnel finally located the burning ember and extingushed it."
A Saturday night attack in Tompkins Square Park
We're just getting word of this... In the last few days, several readers have provided similar details about this attack:
According to the reader, the man made it across Avenue A, where a storeowner called for an ambulance. We have not heard any more about his condition... or if any arrests where made in this attack. Police officials did confirm this attack to another reader.
"I heard about a stabbing that occurred on Saturday night around 10:30 at 9th and A, just inside the park. The story I heard was that this guy was attacked by six kids while sitting on a bench near the 9th Street entrance. The kids took his iPod. In the process he was hit with a skateboard and stabbed."
According to the reader, the man made it across Avenue A, where a storeowner called for an ambulance. We have not heard any more about his condition... or if any arrests where made in this attack. Police officials did confirm this attack to another reader.
The trihawk on Avenue A
The following photos were taken by EV Grieve reader Gudron Georges, a New York-based photographer. These three photos and more can be found on her photo blog.
Why it's not always fun to dine at Bowery sidewalk cafes
As the outdoor dining season comes to an end... we look back at the pleasures of dining on our favorite thoroughfare, the Bowery...
Garbage trucks on the sidewalk...
Construction workers in the street...
...and steamy piles in the street...
...and steamy piles on the sidewalk...
Garbage trucks on the sidewalk...
Construction workers in the street...
...and steamy piles in the street...
...and steamy piles on the sidewalk...
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