Closing weekend for the Women of the Lower East Side Film Fest

[Photo of EL Jardin del Paraiso by Steven Matthews via MoRUS]

It's the last two nights for the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space's Lower East Side Film Fest ... here's a quick look at what's playing via the EVG inbox:

Friday, 8 p.m.
El Jardin De Paraiso
E. 4th street (North Side) between Aves C & D
**** Lawn Seating: Bring a blanket!*****

Catalina Santamaria
UMBRELLA HOUSE
10 min
From the 1970’s to the 1990’s hundreds of buildings have been taken away from their owners in The Lower East Side/East Village because of tax arrears. But these buildings in the hands of the city have been left to collapse or be demolished. Pioneering residents took it upon themselves to move in and restore some these buildings with their own labor, giving new life and vitality to the area.

Sebastian Gutierrez
VIA GEANME
16 min
Geanme reached New York not to long after having crossed the border through Mexico. She dealt with the hardship of living as a squatter, delivering a baby and falling out of love. But her tenacity helped through the winter's cold, building her apartment all the way to the improvised delivery room. With the help of a midwife but no running water, Paula, her daughter, was born. Geanme never really got over having left her family behind in Colombia. But that void was filled by Paula and also by the camaraderie and support from the New York City squatter community.

Christina Holmes
HOME AT LA PLAZA CULTURAL ARMANDO PEREZ COMMUNITY GARDEN
La Plaza Cultural Armando Perez Community Garden on East Ninth Street and Avenue C was one of many public spaces damaged by Hurricane Irene and dealt a further blow by flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Garden members discuss the recovery process, the importance of these spaces, and the history of the garden that inspires them to plan and plant for the future.

Saturday, 8 p.m.
El Jardin De Paraiso

Lizzie Borden
BORN IN FLAMES
80 min

Fitting with the theme of the fest we will be screening the 1983 classic feminist indie film BORN IN FLAMES. Director Lizzie Borden is flying out from Los Angeles to be in attendance for the film, a gem of New York cinema, depicting a militant feminist movement in the city after a fictional socialist revolution in America. It also features vintage footage of the Lower East Side and from around New York.

Find more details about the films and the Festival here. Admission each night is a suggested donation of $5.

Reader report: Box truck nearly takes out pedestrians, tree on East 10th Street

From EVG reader Jose Garcia today just after noon...

We were just walking down 10th Street between A and B when this box truck, making a furniture deliver to the illegal hotel on the block, made a sudden, illegal U-turn, coming right up onto the sidewalk scaring the daylights out of us and ramming into the side of a youngish tree, scraping a bunch of bark off of it.

I started to give them the what for ... and [the delivery people] were dismissive, laughing, rude etc. I called 311, who said because it was an issue of reckless driving, transferred me to 911.

By the time the cops got there, of course, the jerks had left. The cops said because they didn’t see it they couldn’t do anything about it. With the spike of pedestrian deaths owing to out-of-control drivers in NYC, I will file a complaint with the Department of Transportation.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Photo of Caravan of Dreams on East 6th Street by Fallopia Tuba]

2 people injured in a fire at the Lillian Wald Houses this morning (DNAinfo)

A section of Delancey Street now co-named Dashane Santana Way (The Lo-Down)

The Fringe Festival returns (The New York Times)

When a car nearly wiped out Yonah Schimmel's in 1970 (BoweryBoogie)

Christo and Dora watching at Tompkins Square Park with Goggla (The Villager)

Community garden tour in the East Village (Off the Grid)

About the new executive director of the Third Street Music School Settlement (Crain's New York)

And there is a campaign underway to save the Subway Inn from the wrecking ball (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

A story of neighborhood heroism, 1960 edition

Anyone remember Pauline's bar and grill on First Avenue near East Seventh Street?

Thanks to EVG Twitter friend @RTSNYC for this find from The New York Times on June 7, 1960.

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street is on the mend!

In recent days/weeks we've had several Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street sightings … while she is wearing some kind of protective paw thing. (Not the technical term!)

So we reached out to Kita's owners for a report.

"She is still recovering from a torn tendon that happened during the brutal icy winter. She's been treated by a variety of local and non-local vets to varying degrees of success. Now she travels to Long Island every Thursday morning with a fabulous vet who apparently has a national reputation for diagnosing the undiagnosible."

The poor dear! What is the prognosis?

"By all accounts, including hers, Kita is on the mend. She avoided having to need surgery. She's looking forward to being able to chase tennis balls in Tompkins Square Park and East River Park very soon."

On the next episode, Kita responds to the commenter who writes, 'If you don't like torn tendons, then move to … '"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meet Kita

The further adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The further (often truly) amazing adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Happy holidays from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street has her first ever annual checkup

Holiday greetings from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Summer greetings from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The documentary that captured the Bowery's high-end restaurant transformation

In case you haven't seen it, the 2005 documentary "Bowery Dish," which chronicles the Bowery's transformation from skid row to high-end restaurant row, airs tonight at 10 on Channel 13/WNET.



The director, Kevin R. Frech, is a 20-plus year resident of the East Village. He filmed between 1999-2004, after noticing that more restaurants were popping up on the Bowery. He wanted to document the changes.

The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and later aired on the Sundance Channel.

With the arrival of even bigger bold-face-named restaurateurs such as Keith McNally (Pulino's then Cherche Midi) and Daniel Boulud (DBGB), we asked Frech about what has transpired on the Bowery since the film's release.

Did you ever anticipate that the Bowery would continue to transform to such a degree as it has in 2014? Seems like a sequel is in order!

Yes, I really want to make a sequel — follow some of the camera angles from the original to show what dramatic changes have happened lately. When I set out to make the film, I could see the street was about to undergo radical change, but I was amazed at how fast it happened.

While I knew it would continue after the film was completed, I had no idea how much further it would go. Keith McNally, the New Museum, all of the high-rises and galleries. Meanwhile the flophouses are mostly gone, the Salvation Army is gone, and only the Bowery Mission remains from the rougher days of the old Bowery.

Honey House, now serving coffee on East 11th Street

A new coffee shop opened this week at 334 E. 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The place is so new, there isn't a sign yet outside.

EVG reader Jake Seliger stopped by Honey House yesterday, and shared these photos with us. His take?

"The space is small — somewhere between Abraço and Third Rail — but has a few seats," he reported. "They're supposed to get pastries in the next couple days."

EVG reader Russ also stumbled by the place, and liked the vibe. The owner, who previously ran the clothing boutique at this location, was hanging LP covers on the wall. He will eventually bring in a record player to listen to the vinyl.




[Photo by EVG reader Russ]

Buy this skinny East 13th Street building alone — or with 3 other NYC properties

The building at 216 E. 13th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is now on the market. The 9-studio walk-up is asking $4 million.

Or! The four-floor building can be paired with three other properties from other neighborhoods. In total, the portfolio has 53 apartments (plus two retail spaces) with an asking price of $23.5 million. (All cash.)

A PDF with the property descriptions is here.

Catch some solar flares on the Lower East Side

EVG Twitter friend ‏@travishuggett shared this with us from earlier today...

"I watched a woman ride her bike up to the corner of Broome and Orchard, strap this can to a light post, and ride off. I looked inside and there is a tiny video screen playing footage of what I think are solar flares on the surface of the sun. It's weird. I love it."

Anyone happen to spot any of these solar-flare cans around?

Updated 8/8

Ah, thanks. The video installations are the work of Nora Breen.

The Dusty Rebel has documented more of them here.

Archie & Sons now 'closed for remodeling'

[Photo by EVG reader Russ]

Ugh. As the sign shows, the 50s-style luncheonette on Third Avenue at St. Mark's Place is closed for the month of August.

They opened just about a year ago to the date.

We're big fans of their food. However, the closure, temporary or not, doesn't come as a total shocker. In recent months, the hours became more sporadic, the offerings became more varied (juice bar! smoothies!), the quality of food seemingly deteriorated, the staff changed. Plus, we were the only people inside the last six or so times inside. (And we were not there at off hours.)

We were hoping that they would catch on — particularly with all the office bodies (and students) coming to the IBM Watson Building across the street.

Still, it wasn't also tough to opt for Archie's over old favorites the Stage and B&H …

Previously on EV Grieve:
Archie & Sons, a new luncheonette, opening very soon at 23 Third Ave.

Coolest building on the Bowery may or may not be for sale

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

Yes, that graffiti-filled one at the corner of Spring Street … long a source of mystery!

In 2008, New York had what is believed to be the media's one and only inside look at the place:

The building at 190 Bowery is a mystery: a graffiti-covered Gilded Age relic, with a beat-up wooden door that looks like it hasn’t been opened since La Guardia was mayor. A few years ago, that described a lot of the neighborhood, but with the Bowery Hotel and the New Museum, the Rogan and John Varvatos boutiques, 190 is now an anomaly, not the norm. Why isn’t some developer turning it into luxury condos?

Because Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda. It isn’t a decrepit ruin; 190 Bowery is a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot (depending on how you measure) single-family home.

Anyway, Crain's New York is reporting that the circa-1898 building has been listed at RFR Realty. ("The ground and second floors have 18-foot ceiling heights and are ideal for retail use.")

But is it really for sale? Per Crain's: "RFR declined to comment and the photographer, Jay Maisel, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the fate of the ornate six-story, granite and brick building."

Real-estate experts figured the landmarked would fetch $50 million on the open market. And those were 2008 estimates.

Landlord tells residents of 149 First Ave. that they need to vacate ahead of demolition

There's a lot of drama unfolding at 149 First Ave. just north of East Ninth Street.

All tenants (and all rent stabilized) received the following letter from the landlord this week — a "notice of non-renewal and vacate request."

"We have been advised by our engineer that the building has serious deterioration issues and has to be rebuilt and most probably demolished.

"As a matter of safety, we have to vacate all the apartments in the building."

And it doesn't matter how long the tenant has left on his or her lease — "please do not take longer than 90 days to leave. Thank you."

There's nothing on file with the DOB about either a gut renovation or probable demolition. The most serious recent infraction appears to be that the landlord failed to file an annual boiler inspection report for 2012.

It appears that tenants aren't ready to pack their bags. They are already organizing, as this notice on the front door shows.



Meanwhile, if the building is truly going to be gut renovated/condemned/demolished, etc., then the landlord likely not need bother trying to fill the vacated storefront, still on the market for $9,500 rent per month since This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef closed in March.

Updated 2:31
Now with an updated flyer showing the correct date for the meeting with tenants.

4 years later, Le Jardin Bistro returns, opens in former Apartment 13 space on Avenue C

[Image via Facebook]

Here's more information about the new restaurant that opened Monday in the former Apartment 13 space at 115 Avenue C between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street.

Turns out it is Le Jardin Bistro, which was originally housed on Cleveland Place until its 2010 closure. (They opened in 1995. Here's a review from the Times.)

A rep for the restaurant emailed us info yesterday:

The new outpost of Le Jardin Bistro will serve well-priced classic dishes like rich and hearty Cassoulet, traditional Steak Frites and Bouillabaisse paired with an equally accessible wine list.

Divided between two floors, Le Jardin Bistro boasts a stately and inviting oyster bar, dining room and small patio on the first floor with an open kitchen, additional dining room and namesake ‘jardin’ seating open year-round on the second floor.

Here's a dinner menu.


[Click on image for more details]

You can find the wine and dessert menus here.

Le Jardin's hours are: Monday - Wednesday 5 p.m.-midnight; Thursday - Saturday 5 p.m.-2 a.m.; closed Sunday.

Apartment 13 closed during the July 4 weekend.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Apartment 13 will not be reopening on Avenue C

Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'Labyrinth' and David Bowie as Goblin King Jareth

Tonight brings Jim Henson's fantasy adventure "Labyrinth" from 1986.

Let's hit that plot:

Fifteen-year-old Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) accidentally wishes her baby half-brother, Toby, away to the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) who will keep Toby if Sarah does not complete his Labyrinth in thirteen hours.

OK!



The summer film series wraps up next Thursday night with — !!! — "Midnight Cowboy."

As always, bring mosquito repellent. Or put some on at home. It's your West Nile Virus!

Horse Trade Theater Group becoming Frigid New York

[EVG file photo]

We get news releases! From the EVG inbox...

After 16 years as a for-profit producing organization Horse Trade Theater Group will merge into FRIGID New York. Horse Trade will still operate as a venue manager for The Kraine Theater at 85 East 4th Street and UNDER St. Marks at 94 St. Marks Place, but all in-house productions, festivals, and the Resident Artist Program will now be presented by the nonprofit organization FRIGID New York, producers of the annual FRIGID Festival.

"After many years producing indie theatre we've found that we can offer our artists more opportunities as a nonprofit organization” said Managing Director Erez Ziv. “This will also allow us to consolidate our programming, and invest more in each production. We're very excited for what the future holds."

FRIGID New York’s 2014/2015 season will include RadioTheatre’s HP Lovecraft Festival, Clay McLeod Chapman’s The Pumpkin Pie Show, new resident artists The Battalion, The Drafts play reading series, Gotham Storytelling Festival, the Winter Burlesque Blitz, The Fire This Time Festival, the FRIGID Festival, the first annual LGBT Festival, Downunder Improv Festival, and monthly residents Stand Up and Take Your Clothes Off, Sketch Block, Thank You Robot, Adam Wade, The Wasabassco Hellfire Club, Naked Girls Reading, Open Mic Downstairs, Ten-Foot Rat Cabaret, Cabaret Showdown, Radical Vaudeville, and The History of Beer.

New retail space for 165 Avenue B revealed

[EVG file photo from January]

The new retail space at 165 Avenue B, currently undergoing a head-to-toe renovation, made its first appearance this week.



Let's take a different angle!



The listing for the storefront here just north of East 10th Street arrived back in May via RKF :

NEIGHBORS
Back Forty, Discovery Wines, Eleven B, Mercadito, Ninth Street Espresso, Waffles [sic] & Dinges

COMMENTS
Newly created retail space
New storefront, HVAC, bathroom and mechanicals
Non-contiguous Basement space can be made available
Situated at the base of a luxury residential building
Steps from Thompkins (sic) Square Park
Venting is possible
All uses considered

Aside from a bank, froyo or anything served in a hoof, what do you think might work for the space?

Previously on EV Grieve:
165 Avenue B back on the market

165 Avenue B has been sold, and 2 apartments are on the market

'All uses considered' for new retail space at 165 Avenue B

A new book with a 'Point of View' on NYC

East Village resident Janko Puls has a new book out titled "Point of View New York City," featuring photos of well-known NYC landmarks taken from unusual angles.

Tomorrow night at 6:30, he'll be giving an "Illustrated Talk" at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public Library. Find more details here.

At Vanishing New York today, Jeremiah Moss talks with Janko about the book and NYC. Head here for the Q-and-A.

Meanwhile, here are two aerial shots of the under-construction 51 Astor Place that Janko shared with us in April 2012

Tommy Ramone memorial set for Aug. 16 at the Bowery Electric

Tim Hayes, founder and executive producer of the CBGB Festival, is hosting a public memorial on Saturday, Aug. 16 for Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of the Ramones who died last month.

"We will have many special guests telling personal stories about Tommy," Hayes told us about the event, set for 7:30 p.m. at the Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery.

Hayes has said that tickets will be $5, with 100 percent of the money going to a cancer charity. (Tommy died on July 11 of bile duct cancer.)

You can find more details about the evening here as they become available.

Meanwhile, the third annual CBGB Music & Film Festival is scheduled for Oct. 8-12.

Out and About in the East Village, Part 2

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Melissa Elledge
Occupation: Musician, Subway Performer
Location: East 9th Street and 1st Avenue
Date: July 31, Second Avenue F stop

I just finished a solo CD a few months ago for a suggested donation. I’ve met so many people and I’ve gotten a lot of gigs from it too. You’re a walking business card. That’s the reason why I’m in probably half the bands I’ve been in.

I also decided to tryout to get a permit for Music Under New York (MUNY). They give you a permit to play. There are certain stations that you need a permit to play in, like Grand Central and Union Square. It’s kind of hard to get a permit. About 300 people apply every year. When you apply you send in a CD or DVD and they choose about 50 to audition and, of those, about 25 get permits.

So I got one in 2012, but I don’t really play in those spots a lot. I tend to stick to 2nd Avenue on the downtown F and at 14th Street and 6th Avenue. The MUNY spots are not actually lucrative. Times Square is just a million people walking by and they have all these different paths. On a platform they have to walk by you. It’s a captive audience. I feel closer to the public down there. People think that I get most of my tips from tourists, but it’s really not. It’s people who work and live in the neighborhood.

There are people who give me a dollar every single time they see me. And tourists appreciate it like it’s part of their tour package. You’re constantly looked at like you’re in a fishbowl and I’m like, ‘No, I’m doing this for a living.’ I’m not just a statue. People sometimes see me down there and they think, ‘Oh she’s so mysterious, where does she live?’ I want people to know that I’m not a mole person. I actually live somewhere. I live in the East Village. This is my job.

I did actually get robbed and assaulted when I was busking once. This was two years ago. It was bizarre because even that was under the guise of being loved. It was this crazy crackhead lady. I saw her the day before and even that was weird. She was like, ‘Oh, you are so great, you go girl’ and just chatting me up and everything. She was like, ‘Hey I just have a $5 bill, I’m just going to get change.’

I had this weird feeling that day that she took more than she put down and I kind of made a mental note that it was time to stop letting people do that. So the very next day I was in the same spot at the same time and I saw her again and once again she was like, ‘Oh man, you’re so great, I love it when you’re here’ and she was chatting up everybody on the platform. I was watching her and she started standing closer and closer to me and the train comes up and then all of a sudden her hand plunged into my case. I stopped playing and pushed her hand away and said, ‘What are you doing?’ She was like, ‘Oh, I just dropped a $20 in there and I’m just getting change.’ There wasn't a $20 in there.

The train was there but nobody was noticing. There were hundreds of people around and it was like 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. I’m trying to attract attention. She was huge, like twice my size, and she’s trying to push me back. I’m just grabbing at her and then she just turns around out of nowhere and just punches me in the mouth. I’ve never been hit in the face in my life. It was like a dream until I felt the taste of blood in my mouth. I didn’t know what to do and so I just kicked her as hard as I could and then she turned around and punched me in the nose as hard as she could. But the funny thing was that the whole time she was taking her time to get into the train. She was not running down the platform or into the train. She was still obeying the law of etiquette where you let people off the train. She was waiting in a line of people to get on ... You can rob people, but you’ve got to follow the rules of the train. It’s been enough years where I can forgive her and say at least she knew that part.

I spent the rest of the day with the cops and they asked me, 'So are you going to keep doing this? Are you going to be back tomorrow or next week?' I was sitting there covered in blood and tears and sweat in early July, and I said I didn’t know. I felt very differently about what I was doing but they all said independently of each other that 'this is just an isolated incident. You can’t let this keep you from doing this. This is what you love to do and the city likes subway musicians.' I took a week off and then went back to the same spot.

There are people who come to this city and they expect something from it. They expect the city to give them something. I’ve never taken that viewpoint. I always felt like if I wasn’t giving something, I felt bad.

There were a couple of dark years after I got my master's and before I started playing the accordion and I would look at people collecting the trash or doing construction and I would envy them because they were actually putting something back into the city. I wasn’t doing that. I was just checking coats at Don Hills. I never want to feel like that, to feel like I wasn’t contributing, and for me that is playing in the subway. It’s a small thing to do. It’s not like I’m building places for the homeless but it’s my contribution.

Read Part 1 here.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

There's activity at the long-dormant corner of Avenue C and East 3rd Street

[EVG file photo]

Looks as if something is finally going to happen with the empty buildings on the southeast corner of Avenue C and Third Street.

As we've noted, there has been a full vacate order on 32 Avenue C at East Third Street since August 2012. The building is in disrepair, and will eventually be demolished — along with everything to (and including) 26 Avenue C (the former Impulse Footwear), according to various tipsters.

Plans were filed with the city in July 2005 for a new 6-floor residential building here. The city disapproved the plans in May 2006, and nothing more happened with the project.

On Monday, plans were filed for another heavy duty sidewalk shed here. More important, someone filed plans through the city's Hub self-service thing (where architects and engineers "can professionally certify plans for small construction projects without visiting a Department office").

So, unfortunately, we won't be able to see the application until it is accepted into the DOB system. So for now, we don't know what is in store for this space.

Meanwhile, Maria's Cafe has had to leave its longtime corner stand. (Maria left in January, but returned in April for weekend-only business.)

For now, she will be selling her empanadas and coffee from a cart across the street in front of the Capitol One branch.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Maria's Cafe is leaving the East Village for West Harlem

Concern for 32 Avenue C