Friday, March 8, 2013
'Monkey' shines
In honor of Richard Hell week... Perhaps the only existing live footage of the Dim Stars, the super group featuring Hell, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley and Don Fleming. (With Robert Quine in the studio?) They released one record in 1992. Here, with "Monkey."
Man who held Bar Veloce hostage sentenced to 240 years in prison; tells judge to suck his dick
In June 2002, a heavily armed Steven Johnson held patrons at Bar Veloce on Second Avenue hostage. He fired shots inside the bar, doused patrons with kerosene and shouted, "White people are going to burn tonight!" (In total, three people suffered bullet wounds.)
He was found guilty on Feb. 4. Today, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel FitzGerald sentenced Johnson to 240 years in prison, the Daily News reported.
And last words from Johnson? "In closing, I'd just like to say, fuck you and suck my dick," he reportedly told FitzGerald.
Here's more from the Post. And DNAinfo.
Updated:
Important info to add via the AP:
"It was Johnson's third trial. The first trial deadlocked in 2004. The second trial resulted in a conviction and a 240-year prison sentence but was overturned on appeal."
[Image via the Daily News]
It snowed today, somewhat; plus, naming the new Astor Place artwork
OK, so it was probably more than somewhat, per the headline. (Not my fault — a robot wrote it.) Yes, it didn't seem like somewhat when you discovered that the L wasn't running... or the 14A appeared to be arriving every 180 minutes... or when you got doinked by a snowball going into the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place. (Joking!)
A few photos from readers... via Sarah...
...and John...
Now, I shall hog up the rest of the post with these...
...and the new art at Astor Place survived the night...
...and apparently there is a new name for it...
A few photos from readers... via Sarah...
...and John...
Now, I shall hog up the rest of the post with these...
...and the new art at Astor Place survived the night...
...and apparently there is a new name for it...
@evgrieve I just saw someone on instagram refer to it as a "cheese doodle igloo" 😏
— Bomarr Blog (@bomarrblog) March 8, 2013
Will Bleecker Bob's sell records inside the FroYo shop that's taking its place?
Possibly! DNAinfo reports today.After a huge rent hike, the nearly 45-year-old shop is closing. And Forever Yogurt is taking over the space.
Per Andrea Swalec's article:
The self-serve dessert seller Forever Yogurt is in talks with Bleecker Bob's management for the fro-yo and music combo, Forever Yogurt franchise CEO Mandy Calara said Thursday.
"We're talking with them about a counter with their inventory," he said. "And we're decorating the place so it carries on the design of Bleecker Bob's."
Maybe Forever Yogurt can name flavors after classic bands... The Vanilla Fudge ... the Grand Funk Railroad Twist... Vanilla Cream... so many possibilities...
Previously on EV Grieve:
[UPDATED] Let's help Bleecker Bob's find space in the East Village
Bleecker Bob's is for rent
Next phase in Cabrini conversion: Unbearable jackhammering
Developer Ben Shaoul's conversion of the former Cabrini Center into residences continues on Avenue B and East Fifth Street.
Now, according to a Cabrini neighbor, workers have turned their attention to the surrounding area.
"Having jackhammered every inch on the ground floor of the Cabrini building ... they have taken to jackhammering the pavement around the building," the neighbor told us. "If it was loud before, it is even louder now. My floor, walls and entire apartment shake like a minor earthquake. The noise starts just before 7 and doesn't end until after 6."
The resident describes the noise as "unbearable." The resident has called 311. But. The resident wonders if there are alternate solutions for filing a complaint.
"They post no notices or heads-up to the surrounding residences and appear to have no regard for people who live in the neighborhood and have to deal with the constant noise," the resident said. "It remains to be seen if this is also acceptable for their Saturday permit."
The workers are back at the outdoor jackhammering this morning.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Cabrini Center patients out by the end of today; closes for good June 30
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
On the phone with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls
[Sylvain, left, and David Johansen in 2006]
Last week, I spoke with Sylvain Sylvain, the guitarist of the legendary New York Dolls, and one of the two remaining original band members. I called him to talk about the program he's hosting at noon today on East Village Radio titled "Rock and Roll Hours."
He talked to me for about 45 minutes from his home in Atlanta, sharing some favorite East Village memories starting when he moved to the neighborhood from Queens in 1967.
Sylvain, 62, has a lot of stories, from waiting for coffee at Veselka to being the protopunk band who helped pave the way for others on the NYC scene in the 1970s. Here are some excerpts from the conversation, including parts that appear on the East Village Radio website. It was more of a conversation than an interview, so it doesn't really follow a Q-and-A format...
First apartment
"It was ... 1967. It was on East Fifth Street between Avenue C and D. It was $57 a month in rent. For the whole damn place! The apartment had a refrigerator. It worked and everything — the light was on. But it didn’t have a door. [Laughs] It was groovy for about a month or two — during the summer. Then I got the hell out of there real quick. Anywhere past Avenue A you were taking your life in your hands. There was a lot of heroin. It was actually cheaper than pot. It was pretty fucking wild."
Gem Spa, which served as the setting for the back cover of the New York Dolls' first album
"It was a corner place in the late 1960s. It wasn’t much of a joint at all. But we felt like the place epitomized the whole East Village scene — this is where we were living. You could stop there and pick up your smokes and get an egg cream and the newspaper or a magazine. I know Johnny [Thunders] used to really love those egg creams. They got hipper as years went on, where they would sell Melody Maker. It became more of a place once the Dolls took pictures in front of it.
Veselka
"There was the Slow Russians. What do they call that place? Veselka? We called it ‘The Slow Russians.’ You’d ask for a cup of coffee at like 2 o’clock in the morning. By the time they served you the coffee it would be like 6 o’clock in the morning! [Laughs] They were real slow! But they had all those soups and it was pretty cheap. They were open all night too."
Peace Eye Bookstore
"Ed Sanders from the Fugs — one of my favorites — had a bookstore right across the street from Tompkins Square Park [at 147 Avenue A]. I worked there for a couple of months until he discovered that I couldn’t really read because I’ve always had dyslexia, and then he fired me right there."
Rent
"It was cheap. You could live on the Avenues. It was a lot safer. The drugs were softer there. There was marijuana — no heroin. If you wanted to live there, it was like $150 to $300 for a month's rent.
"Every summer, me and [David] Johansen, we used to say, 'OK, I haven't seen that person ... that person just came in. She just came in.' We could count them off. They heard their calling from wherever they came from — the Midwest, the West Coast, upstate New York — even from Queens, like me. These people had a calling to come to the city, and the East Village was the only place that they could afford to live. They would go to art school or become musicians. The only band who I remember before us were the Magic Tramps, which was Eric Emerson. He passed away, the poor guy, on heroin too.
Manhattan
"Queens was a few stops away from Manhattan, but it was a lifetime of travel to get to Manhattan.
"Manhattan was the only free place. As bad as it was in Alphabet City, you were free at least. You could wear what you wanted. Some times you took your life in your hands just walking. It was really dangerous. But at least you were free — that was the bottom line."
Shopping and dressing
"[Dolls bassist] Arthur Kane was on First Avenue. He lived right above a bar [now d.b.a.]. It took us like five hours to get dressed. Arthur was wearing this chick’s zebra waistcoat. It was a print, of course. It wasn’t a real zebra. But it took us hours and hours to get dressed — all this just to go shopping at the supermarket.
"When we get to the supermarket — it was below Houston. It was called the Big Apple. We were in the queue there to pay for whatever food we didn’t stuff into our pockets. This mafiosa guy says 'the things you see when you ain’t got a rifle.'
"I would go shopping from Madison Avenue to thrift shops. And you just made it up on your own.
"We'd get everything from the little kids' motorcycle jackets to beat-up blue jeans. It depended where the fuck you got it. We were the most creative — we were like what they call club kids, but when there were no clubs."
Telecommunications
"Everyone had a telephone. Of course, we never paid for it. You’d pick a name. My name was Ricky Corvette. I'm pretty sure I still owe Ma Bell a lot of money. Back then, you’d call up and say I just moved into this new place. 'OK, what's your name? Ricky Corvette. OK, Ricky we'll be there next week to put in your phone.' I'm talking about 1970."
Johnny's closet
Johnny Thunders had an apartment on Avenue A. His closet was like — everything would be pressed and dry cleaned. He had a real unique way of dressing and picking this and this and that and putting it all together.
When we were picking names for the band, he called me, well, he called Ricky Corvette, and run names by me. 'What do you think of Johnny Thunder?' I'd was like Yeah, that's pretty cool Johnny. The phone would ring five minutes later. What about Johnny Thunders?
Home
"I did have an apartment in New York until 2010. It was on 69th Street off Broadway. Up until a couple years ago we were doing OK so I could still have an apartment in New York. But then I couldn’t afford it. I first moved to LA, and lived there until 1995 and moved here to Atlanta. It was all because of money. Now Atlanta is getting almost as expensive as New York. Almost. I think Nicaragua, friend, is next."
Starting a band
"A lot of kids come up to me like 'Wow, you came up at a really great time!' Oh, fuck no! When the New York Dolls started in 1970, there was nobody. You couldn't get a contract. It took us years. It took until 1973 until we got signed.
"After we started it was five years until CBGB opened in 1975. The Dolls broke up in 1975. There were no places to play. You had to invent places to play. We were the ones who kind of gave birth to groups like Blondie and the Talking Heads."
First apartment
"It was ... 1967. It was on East Fifth Street between Avenue C and D. It was $57 a month in rent. For the whole damn place! The apartment had a refrigerator. It worked and everything — the light was on. But it didn’t have a door. [Laughs] It was groovy for about a month or two — during the summer. Then I got the hell out of there real quick. Anywhere past Avenue A you were taking your life in your hands. There was a lot of heroin. It was actually cheaper than pot. It was pretty fucking wild."
Gem Spa, which served as the setting for the back cover of the New York Dolls' first album
"It was a corner place in the late 1960s. It wasn’t much of a joint at all. But we felt like the place epitomized the whole East Village scene — this is where we were living. You could stop there and pick up your smokes and get an egg cream and the newspaper or a magazine. I know Johnny [Thunders] used to really love those egg creams. They got hipper as years went on, where they would sell Melody Maker. It became more of a place once the Dolls took pictures in front of it.
Veselka
"There was the Slow Russians. What do they call that place? Veselka? We called it ‘The Slow Russians.’ You’d ask for a cup of coffee at like 2 o’clock in the morning. By the time they served you the coffee it would be like 6 o’clock in the morning! [Laughs] They were real slow! But they had all those soups and it was pretty cheap. They were open all night too."
Peace Eye Bookstore
"Ed Sanders from the Fugs — one of my favorites — had a bookstore right across the street from Tompkins Square Park [at 147 Avenue A]. I worked there for a couple of months until he discovered that I couldn’t really read because I’ve always had dyslexia, and then he fired me right there."
Rent
"It was cheap. You could live on the Avenues. It was a lot safer. The drugs were softer there. There was marijuana — no heroin. If you wanted to live there, it was like $150 to $300 for a month's rent.
"Every summer, me and [David] Johansen, we used to say, 'OK, I haven't seen that person ... that person just came in. She just came in.' We could count them off. They heard their calling from wherever they came from — the Midwest, the West Coast, upstate New York — even from Queens, like me. These people had a calling to come to the city, and the East Village was the only place that they could afford to live. They would go to art school or become musicians. The only band who I remember before us were the Magic Tramps, which was Eric Emerson. He passed away, the poor guy, on heroin too.
Manhattan
"Queens was a few stops away from Manhattan, but it was a lifetime of travel to get to Manhattan.
"Manhattan was the only free place. As bad as it was in Alphabet City, you were free at least. You could wear what you wanted. Some times you took your life in your hands just walking. It was really dangerous. But at least you were free — that was the bottom line."
Shopping and dressing
"[Dolls bassist] Arthur Kane was on First Avenue. He lived right above a bar [now d.b.a.]. It took us like five hours to get dressed. Arthur was wearing this chick’s zebra waistcoat. It was a print, of course. It wasn’t a real zebra. But it took us hours and hours to get dressed — all this just to go shopping at the supermarket.
"When we get to the supermarket — it was below Houston. It was called the Big Apple. We were in the queue there to pay for whatever food we didn’t stuff into our pockets. This mafiosa guy says 'the things you see when you ain’t got a rifle.'
"I would go shopping from Madison Avenue to thrift shops. And you just made it up on your own.
"We'd get everything from the little kids' motorcycle jackets to beat-up blue jeans. It depended where the fuck you got it. We were the most creative — we were like what they call club kids, but when there were no clubs."
Telecommunications
"Everyone had a telephone. Of course, we never paid for it. You’d pick a name. My name was Ricky Corvette. I'm pretty sure I still owe Ma Bell a lot of money. Back then, you’d call up and say I just moved into this new place. 'OK, what's your name? Ricky Corvette. OK, Ricky we'll be there next week to put in your phone.' I'm talking about 1970."
Johnny's closet
Johnny Thunders had an apartment on Avenue A. His closet was like — everything would be pressed and dry cleaned. He had a real unique way of dressing and picking this and this and that and putting it all together.
When we were picking names for the band, he called me, well, he called Ricky Corvette, and run names by me. 'What do you think of Johnny Thunder?' I'd was like Yeah, that's pretty cool Johnny. The phone would ring five minutes later. What about Johnny Thunders?
Home
"I did have an apartment in New York until 2010. It was on 69th Street off Broadway. Up until a couple years ago we were doing OK so I could still have an apartment in New York. But then I couldn’t afford it. I first moved to LA, and lived there until 1995 and moved here to Atlanta. It was all because of money. Now Atlanta is getting almost as expensive as New York. Almost. I think Nicaragua, friend, is next."
Starting a band
"A lot of kids come up to me like 'Wow, you came up at a really great time!' Oh, fuck no! When the New York Dolls started in 1970, there was nobody. You couldn't get a contract. It took us years. It took until 1973 until we got signed.
"After we started it was five years until CBGB opened in 1975. The Dolls broke up in 1975. There were no places to play. You had to invent places to play. We were the ones who kind of gave birth to groups like Blondie and the Talking Heads."
[Photos via Sylvain Sylvain]
Play spot the potential penthouse atop the East Village synagogue
As you know, there are plans afoot to convert the Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 E. Sixth St. into condos. Why? The historic building in the new landmark district is in bad shape and the congregation has dwindled.
On Wednesday night, CB3's Landmarks Subcommittee heard a proposal about the renovations, which include a penthouse addition and an elevator. (The Synagogue would use space in the upgraded basement's community facility.) Synagogue leaders reportedly signed a 99-year lease with East River Partners worth some $1.2 million.
However, to fit within the guidelines of the newish Lower East Side/East Village Historic District, the rooftop addition (penthouse!) can't be visible from the street.
DNAinfo'a Serena Solomon covered the meeting, and reports that architect Joseph Pell Lombardi said that the addition will not be visible from the street. To prove this, he installed a mock-up with orange cones and stuff showing where the penthouse would be setback from the rest of the building.
Per DNAinfo:
We took him up on his offer.
Bobby Williams stopped by to see what was what.
Here is the view from East Sixth Street...
Then Bobby walked about 20 feet to the south onto the Village View property... where the addition was clearly visible from the grounds... and likely even more so from any of the Village View apartments...
For the record, Serena's photos showed the same thing.
Meanwhile, the committee tabled the discussion for another meeting.
Previously.
On Wednesday night, CB3's Landmarks Subcommittee heard a proposal about the renovations, which include a penthouse addition and an elevator. (The Synagogue would use space in the upgraded basement's community facility.) Synagogue leaders reportedly signed a 99-year lease with East River Partners worth some $1.2 million.
However, to fit within the guidelines of the newish Lower East Side/East Village Historic District, the rooftop addition (penthouse!) can't be visible from the street.
DNAinfo'a Serena Solomon covered the meeting, and reports that architect Joseph Pell Lombardi said that the addition will not be visible from the street. To prove this, he installed a mock-up with orange cones and stuff showing where the penthouse would be setback from the rest of the building.
Per DNAinfo:
"There is a mock-up in place — a bright orange mark — and I would welcome any of you to take a look at," Lombardi said ... Wednesday night, where he spoke in an effort to earn the board's thumbs-up for the addition.
"It's up there now on top of the roof… we worked hard to make sure it wasn't visible."
We took him up on his offer.
Bobby Williams stopped by to see what was what.
Here is the view from East Sixth Street...
Then Bobby walked about 20 feet to the south onto the Village View property... where the addition was clearly visible from the grounds... and likely even more so from any of the Village View apartments...
For the record, Serena's photos showed the same thing.
Meanwhile, the committee tabled the discussion for another meeting.
Previously.
CB3 committee takes no action for now on proposed restriction of 'corporate formula stores'
It turns out that Wednesday night was the first time that a community group had brought a resolution to this relatively new committee. Its procedure for this was not entirely in place, and the committee declined to take any action — for now.
Rob Hollander, representing the Block Association and No 7-Eleven group, submitted the resolution and supporting documents several weeks ago. However, the background and documents hadn't been distributed to the committee members.
As Hollander noted, "So members may not have read it in its submitted form and they didn't have any documents to look at during the meeting. As a result, some concerns were raised and discussed that were not contained in the resolution itself."
He said that the resolution is just a way to give all community boards more say in local land use. "It doesn't prescribe what any community board should do about land use, it just allows them to exercise choice," Hollander said.
And for the time spent Wednesday night?
"I don't begrudge the lost time — I enjoyed meeting the members who I didn't already know, it was a pleasure to see again the members that already knew, and presenting is fun," Hollander said. "But we did lose a month. At the very end an important and relevant concern was raised: On what criteria would the Community Board decide up or down on a given corporate store? It seems to me it raises serious legal liabilities of discrimination. So the meeting was not a waste by any means."
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] More from the anti-7-Eleven front on Avenue A and East 11th Street
Avenue A's anti-7-Eleven campaign now includes arsenal of 20,000 stickers
'No 7-Eleven' movement goes global with BBC report
7-Eleven fallout: East Village groups propose resolution 'to restrict corporate formula stores'
The photography of Jefferson Siegel
You've likely seen Jefferson Siegel's news photography (and byline) in The Villager, Daily News and elsewhere... He recently launched a new site showcasing his photos ... (and he continues to add to it...)
I've always liked his work, especially his Occupy Wall Street coverage. You can find his site here.
Winter Friday flashback Extra Place is now officially a Dead End
On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from April 14, 2009...
------
As the new city sign on the left shows...
Previously on EV Grieve:
The End of Extra Place
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As the new city sign on the left shows...Previously on EV Grieve:
The End of Extra Place
Thursday, March 7, 2013
A game of chess at 100 Avenue A
Under the awning this afternoon at 100 Avenue A, where East Village Farms closed on Feb. 7, 2012.
Photo by Bobby Williams.
Analyzing Astor Place's mystery artwork
Well, this was sitting by the Cube this morning at Astor Place. (Via Twitter around 8 a.m.)
Another angle via @bomarrblog...
Guesses at what this is supposed to be included... Ziggy, a Cheeto/Cheeseball, a nipple and a gift for Emperor Palpatine.
Another angle via @bomarrblog...
Guesses at what this is supposed to be included... Ziggy, a Cheeto/Cheeseball, a nipple and a gift for Emperor Palpatine.
City OK's 6-floor, 6-unit condo for former East Seventh Street parking lot
Massey Knakal issued the following news release this morning:
A development site at 277 East 7th Street, located between Avenues C and D ... was sold in an all-cash transaction valued at $1,850,000. The vacant 22.25’ x 97.5’ lot benefits from a curb cut. Currently, the lot is used for ten parking spaces. With a zoning of R8-B and FAR 4.00 residential, the site contains approximately 7,461 buildable square feet. The sale price equates to approximately $248 per buildable square foot.
We noted that this parcel was for sale (asking: $1.95 million) back in February 2011. As reported here in December, there are plans in place to build a six-floor, six-unit apartment building (with presumably a garage of some kind).
The city OK'd those plans from Eisner Design LLC back on Feb. 13, according to city records. South Fork Partners LLC is listed as the owner.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The next sliver of space for development: The parking lot at 277 Seventh St.
Seventh Street parking lot destined to become 6-floor apartment building
A look at the dwindling number of East Village lots
Noted
EVG regular Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C points out this unfortunate juxtaposition from this morning's Groupon email for the area...
Revisiting Fetus Squat on East 9th Street in the early 1990s
Katie Jones lived in Fetus Squat on East Ninth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D for several years in the early 1990s. She recently shared several photos with me. Jones, who now lives in Oregon, left the neighborhood in 1996.
"I think that putting these photos out there after all this time has actually released me in some ways. With technology the way it is today, I was able to post many squatter photos from the early 1990s on Facebook. In doing that I have been back in touch with many people from this time. That part has been awesome," she wrote in an email.
"I wanted to be able to give them their history back and letting go of these pictures people are reminded of what we fought for. They are reminded of their part in the struggle to maintain those squats. I am nostalgic about the past in some respects. I miss the community we had back then. I miss the sense of ultimate trust I had in my activist friends. I also see too many faces in those photos that have died — that part is hard."
She return to the city several weeks ago for a long weekend.
"I had not been to NYC since 1997, so it was the first time I had seen the full effect of the gentrification on the LES. Shocking and sad," she said. "I had been warned by friends who still live in the area, but it really was a mindfuck."
Here are several of the photos with a brief description from Katie. (And a special thanks to MoRUS for putting me in contact with Katie.)
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Fetus Squat 1992
My home for most of 1992 until a fire destroyed the entire building. This shot was taken on 9th Street toward Avenue C. To the left of Fetus is a giant garden that had been reclaimed from one of the numerous vacant lots that were so prevalent in the LES during this time.
I loved living at Fetus Squat. I really found my niche in this building. I learned how to do masonry, put up insulation and sheetrock, gather food from dumpsters and restaurants, and make window frames out of police barricades. (Actually, we used those police barricades for everything from stairs to lofts.)
It really was my first communal experience. I think there were about 30 of us living at Fetus by the time I got there. I had moved to NYC from Miami. The scene was young and punk rock with a lot of political ideologies. More than any other squat, Fetus was where I felt at home. I am still in touch with so many of my friends from this building 20 years later.
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Amy and Soy During Fire at Fetus Squat
This shot was taken during the fire that engulfed Fetus Squat in October of 1992. Everyone got out. The fire department showed up, but only put water on the adjacent building. One of the firemen turned to me and said “Is this your house?” to which I said in a confused, numb way “Yes…” He replied “Not anymore! Hahaha!”
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Fetus Rubble
This photo is of Fetus Squat after the wrecking crew came and demolished all remains of our home. It seemed like days that we all gathered there to sort through the rubble trying to retrieve something from out shattered lives. Scott looks on as Frankie crosses the street with some of his unburied belongings.
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Fetus Rubble Black Flag
This was such an impossibly surreal time for all of us. We were homeless and digging through the remains of our old Squat on 9th and C. You can see the old doorway still intact with the Anarchist Black Flag next to it. We spent days sifting through the rubble looking for belongings.
Shortly after this I decided to travel. Some friends had found a ride down to New Orleans. The guy who was driving put in a mixed cassette tape and I recognized it as one of mine! It kind of freaked me out and I asked him where he got it. He said he found it at the Fetus lot. I never knew this guy before the road trip and here he was with one of my mixed tapes scavenged from the fire. He told me I could have it back, but I was homeless and traveling so I told him to keep it. We all lost everything we had in that fire.
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Lot Between Serenity and Dos Blocos
This shot was taken from the Serenity Squat Roof around 1993. This Lot was on 9th street between C and D. People were living in the van and maybe some of the other vehicles in the lot. A garden and chickens were in the lot next to all the vehicles.
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Lot Between 8th Street and 9th Street
This lot was massive! It was between 8th and 9th streets and Avenues C to D. It was a combination dumping yard and shanty town. The little shacks were made out of items collected in the lot. People were growing small vegetable gardens and I even saw a chicken or two.
I took this shot from the 5th floor of Serenity Squat. This would have been around 1994. On this day the lot clean up by the city began. All of the people that lived in the tents and shanties were evicted. The city came through with bulldozers and just crushed everything in the way. It was very chaotic as people ran around trying to grab pets and possessions.
Construction for new housing began. This construction lasted the whole spring and summer of 1994. At one point a pile driver took up residence and banged four-story metal rods into the ground. Serenity Squat would shake from the impact! We monkey wrenched it a few times just to get some peace and quiet.
"I think that putting these photos out there after all this time has actually released me in some ways. With technology the way it is today, I was able to post many squatter photos from the early 1990s on Facebook. In doing that I have been back in touch with many people from this time. That part has been awesome," she wrote in an email.
"I wanted to be able to give them their history back and letting go of these pictures people are reminded of what we fought for. They are reminded of their part in the struggle to maintain those squats. I am nostalgic about the past in some respects. I miss the community we had back then. I miss the sense of ultimate trust I had in my activist friends. I also see too many faces in those photos that have died — that part is hard."
She return to the city several weeks ago for a long weekend.
"I had not been to NYC since 1997, so it was the first time I had seen the full effect of the gentrification on the LES. Shocking and sad," she said. "I had been warned by friends who still live in the area, but it really was a mindfuck."
Here are several of the photos with a brief description from Katie. (And a special thanks to MoRUS for putting me in contact with Katie.)
------
Fetus Squat 1992
My home for most of 1992 until a fire destroyed the entire building. This shot was taken on 9th Street toward Avenue C. To the left of Fetus is a giant garden that had been reclaimed from one of the numerous vacant lots that were so prevalent in the LES during this time.
I loved living at Fetus Squat. I really found my niche in this building. I learned how to do masonry, put up insulation and sheetrock, gather food from dumpsters and restaurants, and make window frames out of police barricades. (Actually, we used those police barricades for everything from stairs to lofts.)
It really was my first communal experience. I think there were about 30 of us living at Fetus by the time I got there. I had moved to NYC from Miami. The scene was young and punk rock with a lot of political ideologies. More than any other squat, Fetus was where I felt at home. I am still in touch with so many of my friends from this building 20 years later.
-----
Amy and Soy During Fire at Fetus Squat
This shot was taken during the fire that engulfed Fetus Squat in October of 1992. Everyone got out. The fire department showed up, but only put water on the adjacent building. One of the firemen turned to me and said “Is this your house?” to which I said in a confused, numb way “Yes…” He replied “Not anymore! Hahaha!”
-----
Fetus Rubble
This photo is of Fetus Squat after the wrecking crew came and demolished all remains of our home. It seemed like days that we all gathered there to sort through the rubble trying to retrieve something from out shattered lives. Scott looks on as Frankie crosses the street with some of his unburied belongings.
-----
Fetus Rubble Black Flag
This was such an impossibly surreal time for all of us. We were homeless and digging through the remains of our old Squat on 9th and C. You can see the old doorway still intact with the Anarchist Black Flag next to it. We spent days sifting through the rubble looking for belongings.
Shortly after this I decided to travel. Some friends had found a ride down to New Orleans. The guy who was driving put in a mixed cassette tape and I recognized it as one of mine! It kind of freaked me out and I asked him where he got it. He said he found it at the Fetus lot. I never knew this guy before the road trip and here he was with one of my mixed tapes scavenged from the fire. He told me I could have it back, but I was homeless and traveling so I told him to keep it. We all lost everything we had in that fire.
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Lot Between Serenity and Dos Blocos
This shot was taken from the Serenity Squat Roof around 1993. This Lot was on 9th street between C and D. People were living in the van and maybe some of the other vehicles in the lot. A garden and chickens were in the lot next to all the vehicles.
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Lot Between 8th Street and 9th Street
This lot was massive! It was between 8th and 9th streets and Avenues C to D. It was a combination dumping yard and shanty town. The little shacks were made out of items collected in the lot. People were growing small vegetable gardens and I even saw a chicken or two.
I took this shot from the 5th floor of Serenity Squat. This would have been around 1994. On this day the lot clean up by the city began. All of the people that lived in the tents and shanties were evicted. The city came through with bulldozers and just crushed everything in the way. It was very chaotic as people ran around trying to grab pets and possessions.
Construction for new housing began. This construction lasted the whole spring and summer of 1994. At one point a pile driver took up residence and banged four-story metal rods into the ground. Serenity Squat would shake from the impact! We monkey wrenched it a few times just to get some peace and quiet.
St. Mark's Place is dead! Long live St. Mark's Place!
[Window Shade Repairman, St. Marks Place, New York, 1938, by Joe Schwartz. Via Stephen Cohen Gallery]Ada Calhoun is a freelance journalist working on a narrative history of St. Mark's Place. Last September, Calhoun sold the book, titled "St. Marks Is Dead," to W.W. Norton. Calhoun has her own narrative history of St. Mark's — she was born and raised on the block between Second Avenue and First Avenue in the mid-1970s and 1980s.
The book is due at the publisher next spring, and she is looking for some help.
Per the Facebook events page:
My goal is to track down the best stories, photographs, and historical documents related to the street. I've been going through archives and conducting a few interviews a week, but I know I'm only scratching the surface. In the interest of efficiency, I'd like to invite anyone with St. Marks-related stories or pictures to share to drop by the lovely Neighborhood Preservation Center on March 10th, anytime between 12 and 4, for a St. Marks Place story-gathering event.
ST MARKS STORY DAY
Sunday, March 10 from 12-4
Neighborhood Preservation Center
232 East 11th Street, Buzzer #1
(Near St. Mark's Church)
Snacks provided!
I recently spoke with Calhoun about the book, and what it was like growing up on the block.
"I didn't know any different. I thought it was totally normal. I was used to stepping over bodies walking down the street or being offered drugs every five steps," she said. "I did have this experience when I went to visit cousins in Ohio when I was 11 years old. They had a kiddie pool in the backyard and we went to a drive-in movie theater. And we got root beer floats, which I never had before. I came back fuming at my parents. I was like, What the fuck — you never told me any of this! I felt totally deprived!"
The book will explore the history (going back to the 17th century) and mythology of the street. So far she has talked with more than 100 people about the block and its meaning to them.
Any common themes emerging so far?
"The thing that I kept running into [were] people saying that there was this golden moment on the street when St Mark's was really itself and reached its full promise on this date and for these five years there was no better place in the entire world. It was the heart of culture — the center for music, art and poetry," she said. "People would describe passionately how it was so vibrant and they were so alive, then it died this horrible death."
For instance, Jack Kerouac biographer Joyce Johnson said that St. Mark's was all over in 1974 when someone flipped a cigarette into her son's stroller.
Another person Calhoun interviewed said that the scene died in 1974. Someone else said that all started in 1974. She also heard that the block reached its peak in 1978. Not to mention 1980. And so on.
"I'm really curious what's going on now. Basically my theory right now, based on doing this book, is that everyone was wrong. Everyone who thought it was dead was wrong," she said. "So people who think it's dead now are probably wrong too. My theory is that people coming out of karaoke bars or yogurt shops ... this is going to be some new wave of culture that we don't know about and won't even know about until it's over."
[St. Mark's Place on 2009, via the EVG files]The Smith eyes basement expansion on Third Avenue
The Smith, the popular bistro on Third Avenue near East 10th Street, is on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket. According to documents, the owners are proposing to add a bar to the restaurant's basement. (The PDF of the application is here.)In addition to a small bar, The Smith plans to open up the basement area for dining as well.
A media rep for the restaurant told us: "Currently, The Smith East Village is hoping to expand this summer and revamp the downstairs area, but all is still pending final approval."
Restaurant staffers are currently collecting signatures in support of the expansion.
[Image via]
American Apparel celebrating 9 years of gratuitous butt shots on the Lower East Side today
The American Apparel outpost on East Houston and Orchard turns 9 today. (That's 2.3 in Nylon Spandex Micro-Mesh Bra Bodysuit Years.)
In honor of that, there's a big celebratory sale from 4-8 today. BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down have more details on that. (And they have a coupon.)
Never forget!
Previously on EV Grieve:
And now, my collection of the newish American Apparel ads
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
A feel good look back at Nemo, or whatever that storm was called on Feb. 8
Here is something to do while waiting for whatever the Weather Channel named the storm coming into the NY area this evening...
The day after Nemo (the Storm of Feb. 8™), East Village resident Stephen Nangeroni shot video of people (and hawks and dogs) enjoying Tompkins Square Park and the East River Park.
Per Stephen: "The video is purely happy in tone... the idea is to capture the goofiness and fun of a day in the snow."
The day after Nemo (the Storm of Feb. 8™), East Village resident Stephen Nangeroni shot video of people (and hawks and dogs) enjoying Tompkins Square Park and the East River Park.
Per Stephen: "The video is purely happy in tone... the idea is to capture the goofiness and fun of a day in the snow."
Here is the link to Vimeo, where it looks better than here.
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