Reminders tonight: Memorial in Tompkins Square Park for Monica Shay

Monica Shay died on Thursday after being shot last weekend at the Pennsylvania country home she shared with her husband Paul. She was 58. Tonight at 8, her friends and loved ones will gather in Tompkins Square Park for a memorial vigil.

As The Villager noted, she and her husband Paul, who is expected to recover, were prominent neighborhood activists. "They helped the East Village squatters who took over city-owned buildings in the 1980s. They also supported the encampment that homeless people set up in Tompkins Square Park."

The memorial will be held at Seventh Street and Avenue A at the entrance to the Park.

[Photo of Monica Shay from 1990 by Clayton Patterson via The Villager]

Love blossoms at the Tompkins Square Park dog run?

EV Grieve reader Caiti notes that her mutt puppy Jagger and Butter the English mastiff were making friendly over the fence between the little dog run and the big dog run today... Nice that we can all get along...

Reminders today: Free concert in Tompkins Square Park

And the lineup...

2:10 - 2:30: Lance Blisters
2:35 - 3:05: Jennifer Blowdryer and band
3:10 - 3:40: David Peel
3:45 - 4:15: FLY with Zero Content
4:20 - 4:45: The Drunkard's Wife
4:50 - 5:15: Chink Floyd
5:20 - 6:00: High Teen Boogie

East Village crusties go national thanks to The Huffington Post

Thanks to the readers who sent along the link to a Huffington Post, um, post on Steven Hirsch's Crustypunks site.

Although the site is in the HuffPo's New York section, the piece is featured on the main page...

Aren't you proud?

A new era for composting?

On East 12th Street. Taking chairs now? If so, then I have some mattresses in front of my building that I can drag over...

Remembering Barnacle Bill yesterday in Tompkins Square Park

Yesterday, William Scott — better known as Barnacle Bill — would have turned 46. Bill passed away in 2009. In his honor, someone set up a makeshift memorial for him along Crusty Row in Tompkins Square Park...

As Lorcan Otway wrote for The Villager in May 2009:

“Barnacle” was well known in the East Village as a gentleman and a gentle man, in spite of his hardscrabble looks. Bill wore a nose ring, and had a large, upturned scar on the left side of his mouth, giving him the look of a pirate, but that was the farthest from the reality of this man.

You can read more about Barnacle Bill here.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Seventh Street, 10:11 p.m., July 8

East Second Street, 8 p.m., July 8

Photo by our friend BaHa.

To Rupert and the gang

An instant request (because of this) from EV Grieve reader Raffi... The Jam with "News of the World" from 1978.

[Oops! Posted the "Coming to America" trailer by mistake earlier...as you were.]

Report: CBGB brand up for auction

Bloomberg News has the following item today:

CBGB Founder’s Estate to Auction Brand Tied to N.Y. Punk Club
The CBGB brand will be sold by the estate of Hillel “Hilly” Kristal, founder of the New York rock & roll club that launched the Ramones and other punk acts.

Streambank LLC was hired to sell intellectual property rights related to the CBGB brand, the bank said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The assets include trademarks, domain names, recordings and artifacts from the club, which closed in 2006.

The brand still resonates worldwide and could be used for new opportunities in live clubs, apparel and interactive media, Streambank said. The acronym stands for “Country Blue Grass Blues.”

“We’re expecting it to trade well in excess of a couple million,” said Jack Hazan, a principal in Needham, Massachusetts-based Streambank, which specializes in intangible asset transactions.

Now I'm trying to think of the worst CBGB-related branding opportunity...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Save Jerry's Newsstand on Astor Place (Save Jerry's)

Debate over the East Village historic district (The Local East Village)

Manhattan rents keep going UP (Curbed)

Cosmos, the diner on Second Avenue and 23rd Street, is "closed for renovations." Worry. (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Testing out a Red Bull Creation on Second Avenue (Neither More Nor Less)

An interview with Big Gay Ice Cream owner Bryan Petroff (Grub Street)

An arrest on East Second Street last night (BoweryBoogie)

Your least favorite NYC block? (Flaming Pablum)

Bastille Day celebrations begin this weekend (Nonetheless)

...and EV Grieve reader LULU notes new addition to the plywood outside the former Teriyaki Boy on East 10th Street...

EV Grieve reader Chris noticed that part of the awning was down at Something Sweet yesterday...

We're told someone came by and, in a bit of tomfoolery, jumped up and accidentally pulled the awning down...

Free concert in Tompkins Square Park tomorrow

[Courtesy of Fly]

And it's a great lineup... this is the make-up date for the show that was cancelled on June 12.

2:10 - 2:30: Lance Blisters
2:35 - 3:05: Jennifer Blowdryer and band
3:10 - 3:40: David Peel
3:45 - 4:15: FLY with Zero Content
4:20 - 4:45: The Drunkard's Wife
4:50 - 5:15: Chink Floyd
5:20 - 6:00: High Teen Boogie

Sidewalk aims to reopen by Aug. 5

Sidewalk closed back on March 1. And the restaurant-bar-performance space at Avenue A and Sixth Street has been ongoing extensive renovations these past four months. It seems as if the place will never reopen.

However, there is good news from 
a Sidewalk insider. Via email, he told us, "It looks like things are finally getting close to completion." He said one of the previously silent partners is taking over as the active manager.

Some other tidbits:

• "From what I know, the menu should be the same, but stripped down to about a third of the size, mainly the items that were selling. Prices should be about the same."

• "The music program will be basically picking up where it left off ... with the Antifolk Festival pushed back to the fall."

• "As far as the back room goes, we've thrown a bit of money into upgrading the sound system and backline. There was an event booked for Friday, Aug. 5 a while back that everyone was excited about and we've set that date as the goal for trying to get everything done." [Ed. note — Boog City]

Meanwhile, Sidewalk's long-running open mic nights on Mondays have been taking place at a Gathering of Tribes on East Third Street ... another organization that could use your support.

A sidewalk memorial for the Mars Bar

Outside the Mars Bar. Thanks to Goggla for the photo. Check out some of her recent Mars Bars shots here.

The Yippie Museum Cafe adding 'specialty coffees and light food'

Last Friday, we noted the Yippie Museum Cafe on Bleecker Street between Elizabeth and the Bowery is undergoing renovations... There's a sign out front now that explains what's going on here...

Pangea has a new lease on Second Avenue

As we reported back in the spring, Pangea and the restaurant's landlord on Second Avenue were in a dispute. As a result, Pangea had to close for several days.

Then the landlord apparently lined up Karczma, one of Greenpoint's favorite Polish restaurants, to be the new tenant, even submitting their name for the June CB3/SLA docket.

During all this, the RFK real-estate listing noted that Pangea was a "former tenant."

I asked Pangea owner Stephen Shanaghan where he stood with the landlord.

"We did sign a new agreement with the landlord in court last Thursday," he said. "One of the conditions was that he instruct RKF to remove this listing which has been up since February."

He said the lease is through December 2015. "Unfortunately, it's only until [then], but I'll take it."

Yesterday at the former 35 Cooper Square

Perhaps they're breaking into the Cooper Square Hotel? In any event, first signs of workers that we've seen here in weeks. Photos by Bobby Williams.

Monica Shay has died; memorial vigil scheduled in Tompkins Square Park Saturday night

Outside the Shay's apartment building on East 10th Street earlier tonight...

According to various published reports, Monica Shay, 58, was pronounced dead at 3:07 a.m. today in her room at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa. Monica Shay is the third victim to die after the massacre Saturday night at the country home she shared with her husband Paul. Their nephew, Joseph Shay, 43, was killed in the shooting. His girlfriend, Kathryn Erdmann, 37, of Fall River, Mass., was also critically wounded. Her 2-year-old son, Gregory, was shot and killed while he slept.

Paul Shay, 64, and his nephew's girlfriend, Kathryn Erdmann, 37, were expected to survive bullet wounds to the head, the Daily News reported.

On Monday, a SWAT team killed Mark Richard Geisenheyner, the ex-con who police say was responsible for the murders.

Monica Shay worked for the Pratt Institute where she was the director of its arts and cultural management program.

There will be a memorial vigil for Monica Shay on Saturday night in Tompkins Square Park at 8 p.m.

There are no rain delays in table tennis

This afternoon by the ping-pong table in Tompkins Square Park.

And a little later, by the new Tompkins Square Park Baths...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Claudius the turtle is lost

Spotted on Ninth Street and Avenue C by Dave on 7th.