Today in passive-aggressive notes on East Fourth Street

We watched the woman place this on the door of 234 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B (Madonna's old building!) earlier this evening ... "To the guys that applauded my parking job (you live on the top floor). Thank you! It totally made my day — I had a really long day at work!"

Graffiti any mother can love

Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

[Dave on 7th]

Air conditioner falls out of window on Second Avenue

Around 1 p.m., we were walking south down Second Avenue, thinking about how many women wear football jerseys on Sundays when.... we heard a commotion! It sounded like an accident. Then we saw what had happened. An air conditioner fell out of a window from an apartment above the Moonstruck Diner at Fifth Street...

Thankfully, it landed on the Moonstruck awning...

Based on eyewitness accounts, we think this is what happened. Unscientifically...

This happened just one block to the north ... and almost one year to the date of another AC accident, though that one was far more serious.

Related reading at Runnin' Scared from July:
How Often Do Air Conditioners Fall Out of NYC Windows and Kill People?

Video shows NYPD using pepper spray during 'Occupy Wall Street' march

As you may have read, the NYPD arrested nearly 80 people near Union Square yesterday in the “Occupy Wall Street” march.

This video that someone sent us shows NYPD officers shooting pepper spray and tackling people participating in the march on 12th Street near University Place.



According to WCBS, "The NYPD, on the record, called every arrest justified." Gothamist has more here.

Here's another frame-by-frame video showing the NYPD using the pepper spray on women behind a barricade on 12th Street...



Bob Arihood has a video with one of the women who was spray right here.

Remembering Keba Brown on Avenue D

On Sept. 13, 22-year-old Makever “Keba” Brown was struck and killed on the FDR during a police pursuit, as DNAinfo reported.

There is a makeshift memorial for him in front of the Jacob Riis Houses building where he lived at 90 Avenue D. Friends and loved ones are also leaving messages outside Rite Aid near Seventh Street...

As Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo reported, his death has sparked tension between some in the public housing community and the NYPD, with incidents of tenants of the Riis and Lillian Wald houses "hurling items at cops out of their windows."

Per DNAinfo:

Brown was approached by police late on Sept. 13, after he was observed making a hand-to-hand drug transaction in the complex, an NYPD spokesman said. Brown took off running toward the FDR Drive at East Sixth Street with police in pursuit, but cops said they lost him before he bolted across the highway’s southbound lane and was struck and killed by a livery cab in the northbound lane about 10:48 p.m.

A viewing was held yesterday at the Ortiz Funeral Home on First Avenue. Brown leaves behind three sons, ages 7, 6 and 3, according to DNAinfo.

Brown's brother Lawrence White. Photo: DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

You can find more photos and the story here.

More photos of the uprooted tree on East Sixth Street

Following up on our earlier post about the downed tree on East Sixth Street just east of Avenue A ...

EV Grieve reader Elizabeth Frayer of New York Natives ... sent along these next three shots of the Japanese Pagoda tree ... the Parks Department and FDNY are on the scene...

And from EV Grieve reader Carl Bentsen ...

As several people have pointed out...the base of the tree looks rotted out... without any/many roots...

Downed tree on East Sixth Street near Avenue A

With all the rain that we've had going back to Irene, the ground is awfully soft... which likely led to this uprooted tree overnight on East Sixth Street near Avenue B...

[Top two photos via EVG reader Kevin Rose]

Here's a photo this morning via @AraRoden ... Sixth Street, as you might imagine, is currently closed along here...

Day 1 of Oktoberfest at Zum Schneider

Always seems to be a line for the Oompahpahing...especially opening day...

The Zum Oktoberfest schedule is here.

Photos by Dave on 7th.

At the FAB! Festival today

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Cue the long lines: Japadog opening first New York City location on St. Mark's Place

Here come the lines. Japadog, the crazy popular Vancouver-based artisanal hot dog stands, is opening its first brick-and-mortar (whatever) shop on 30 St. Mark's Place.

Oh my. This will get really delirious.

Jeremiah Moss first brought us the possibility of a Japadog invasion back in March 2010.

Per Jeremiah:

Knowing New York's current passion for (1) standing in line for trendy food, (2) all things Japanese, (3) adorable, artisanal sidewalk food vendors, and (4) cheap, white-trash food turned into semi-haute cuisine (burgers, cupcakes, bacon, pizza, et al.), I predict that Japadog will be immensely successful here.

He goes on.

[W]hen the now bigger, much more powerful Japadog announces plans for a three-story, outdoor, hot-dog and beer pleasure palace to be erected on a quiet street in "Nolita," the community will rally against them, successfully blocking construction.

Read the whole post here.

Get Your Pickle On this afternoon

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The 4th Street Food Co-op and Biocitizen school of environmental philosophy invite you to learn how to pickle the old fashioned way and explore the wildest edge of the DIY culinary frontier!

Participate in these spine-tingling high-wire lacto-acidophilus fermentation demonstrations—and more: 1/2 Sour & Garlic pickles! Ginger carrot pickles! Kim Chi! Sour kraut! Sour beets! Gundru! You'll see — and be invited to experience — all the tools, ingredients and techniques so you can DIY!

Improve your health with home-made probiotics! Save money! Increase self-reliance! Just in time for fall harvest! Get your pickle on!

Today during the FAB! Fest, 1pm-5pm, in front of the 4th Street Food Co-op, 58 East 4th Street between Bowery and 2nd Ave.

DOH closes Friend House (again?) on Third Avenue

In late August, the DOH temporarily closed Friend House, the Asian bistro on Third Avenue at 13th Street. They reopened, or so I thought.

In any event, per the DOH website, Friend House has 83 violation points dated Thursday. Among the worst of the violations:

• Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.
• Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
• Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

You always take photos of cranes

Second Avenue and 13th Street this morning.

Today in interesting-looking boiler-service trucks on Seventh Street

Cloudy with rain likely

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Ghost story

Suicide, 1977.

East Village first graders protest the arrival of Starbucks on First Avenue

This comes via our friend Marjorie Ingall:

Here we have a piece of paper recovered from the recesses of the backpack of a student at The Neighborhood School (PS 363) on First Avenue and Third Street.

She translates the sign for us: Starbucks: The Bean Instead.

We understand that two first-grade classmates were drawing these and handing them out to the other kids. Fight the power.

More here.

Previously.

Ominous

Dave on 7th has successfully left the city this afternoon ... And looking back at the skyline ... Don't panic, but run!

A Richard Kern retrospective tonight and tomorrow at the Anthology Film Archives

From the EV Grieve inbox .... from the Anthology Film Archives ... Richard Kern will be there tonight for both the 7 and 9 screenings...

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

[Lydia Lunch in "Fingered"]

To be screened:

PROGRAM 1 at 7 p.m.:
GOODBYE 42ND STREET (1983, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Kern films the storefronts of famous 42nd Street: the fast-food stands, the sex shops, the grindhouse and porn theaters, and interrupts the visit with random acts of violence.

THE KING OF SEX (1987, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Nick Zedd. Music by Killdozer.
A man demonstrates his virility.

YOU KILLED ME FIRST (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Featuring Karen Finley, David Wojnarowicz, and Lung Leg.
During Thanksgiving dinner, a young woman recalls family milestones that helped shape her outlook on life.

THE EVIL CAMERAMAN (1986/90, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jap Anne and Jackie O. Music by Foetus Corp.
Radical change in Kern’s cinema. The filmmaker tries to manipulate his models who suddenly show unexpected resistance.

THE SEWING CIRCLE (1992, 7 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Kembra Pfahler.
Kern films the extreme piercing operation made on performance artist and singer of TheVoluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Kembra Pfahler.

X IS Y (1990, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jackie O and Cristina. Music by Cop Shoot Cop.
A bunch of sexy women play with the preferred toys of primal dominant males: the automatic weapon.

THE BITCHES (1992, 10 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Music by Jim Coleman.
Two women, one man, three bitches. Or how to surprise the average porn watcher.

Plus one secret movie!
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.
–Friday and Saturday, September 23 & 24 at 7 each night.

PROGRAM 2 at 9 p.m.:
MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES (PARTS 1 AND 3) (1985, 18 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
“Stray Dogs” (Part 1): The thwarted and destructive loves of an art lover facing his idol. Featuring David Wojnarowicz and Bill Rice. Music by J.G. Thirlwell.
“Thrust In Me” (Part 3): This provocative film probably shows the synthesis of the Cinema of Transgression by illustrating the worst taboos. Featuring Nick Zedd and others. Music by The Dream Syndicate.

SUBMIT TO ME (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Lydia Lunch and others. Music by Butthole Surfers.
A series of decadent portraits in which sex, bondage, blood, and violence collide.

PIERCE (1986, 9 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Audrey Rose.
A bored young woman decides to let a friend pierce her nipples.

FINGERED (1986, 22 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Featuring Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, and Marty Nations.
The misadventures of a sex phone operator after she meets a sexually depraved psychopath.

MY NIGHTMARE (1993, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Susan McNamara. Music by Joe Budenhauser.
Kern ironically makes fun of the photography profession and the advantages it provides with women.

Plus one secret movie!
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.
Friday and Saturday, September 23 & 24 at 9 each night.

FAB! Festival a go tomorrow even if it rains

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

This Saturday September 24, 2011 the FAB! Festival will proceed rain or shine! The event will still be held both indoors and out in the event of inclement weather. The FABnyc website will list alternative venues for artists if rain pushes the festivities indoors.

FABnyc brings together the best in downtown arts & culture year-round on Saturday September 24th from 1 pm-5 pm. Preview the fall season for FREE! With multiple stages showcasing exciting new dance, theater, & music performances, a selection of local artisans and gourmet food vendors, film screenings, installations, hands-on activities, and classes all on one block...

Find the site here.