The Between the Seas Festival returns to the East Village

[Image via Facebook]

Via the EVG inbox…

Between the Seas, the only festival in New York celebrating Mediterranean performance, returns to the Wild Project for its fifth year.

This year, the festival presents some of the most acclaimed and innovative performers from the Mediterranean region. Program highlights include: the English language premiere of "The Dictator" by Lebanese playwright Issam Mahfouz, an absurdist exploration on the nature of tyranny; Catalan artist Borja Gonzales on a performance piece based on puppetry and sand drawing; Italian dance company Esperimenti in a sparkling performance inspired by Italian songs of the 1960s and 1990s; and the fiery flamenco dancer Rebecca Tomas.

Between the Seas runs from Tuesday, Sept. 8 through Sunday, Sept. 13. Performances are at The Wild Project (195 E. 3rd St. between Avenue A and Avenue B). Tickets are $20 unless otherwise noted (students/seniors $15 with valid ID). Tickets can be purchased by calling OvationTix at 212.352.3101 or online here. You can find the full lineup at the Between the Seas website here.

Read our interview last year with Aktina Stathaki, the artistic and producing director of Between the Seas, right here.

What went wrong at Cooper Union

Catching up to a long look at the recent turmoil at Cooper Union … via a piece by Felix Salmon at Fusion titled "How one of America’s last free colleges screwed its students and betrayed its legacy."

There's a lot going on to try to summarize for a post here … so here's a quickie overview:

Cooper Union’s finances are dreadful, and the fact that it charges tuition is a dereliction of everything Peter Cooper stood for. George Campbell, Jamshed Bharucha, and Mark Epstein should be shamed for what they did. It will take something approaching a miracle, or at least a couple of hundred million dollars, to get Cooper Union back to where it was.

Salmon also points out that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's 55-page report into what went wrong at Cooper Union "should be required, and sobering, reading for anybody who cares about higher education in America." (You can download a copy of the report via the Fusion article. Some good Labor Day reading.)

Organic Grill reopens Wednesday

Back on Aug. 17, Organic Grill closed for what was expected to be two weeks while the landlord made some sidewalk repairs.

We noticed that the veganish restaurant remained closed here at 123 First Ave. between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place… These jobs always seem to take longer to complete… now the reopening word — Wednesday at noon.

We will be reopening 9/9 at 12pm! Come join us for complementary drinks to welcome us back! #organicgrill #reopen #og #nyc #eastvillage #xo

— Organic Grill (@TheOrganicGrill) September 5, 2015

Anwar Grocery remains closed on Avenue B

On Wednesday night, we're told that the NYPD shut down Anwar Grocery at 106 Avenue B just south of East Seventh Street…


[Reader submitted photo from Wednesday night]

At this point, we don't know what the closure is for… the store hasn't been open since the bust. And someone has removed the NYPD sticker from the gate.

Anwar was cited and briefly shut down for underage alcohol sales in March 2012.

According to the State Liquor Authority, their liquor license is inactive.

Preparing for the papal visit

So you probably know that Pope Francis is visiting NYC on Sept. 25.

Did you sign up for your chance to attend his Central Park procession? (Maybe Q104 will be giving away tix to the 10th caller next weekend?)

Meanwhile, folks around here are prepping for his arrival.

Spotted on East Fourth Street near Avenue B …



East East Fifth Street near Avenue D …

Robert Ryan at Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives is in the midst of a Robert Ryan retrospective… Here are some details via the Wesleyan University Press (publishers of the new Robert Ryan biography) …

The series collects six of the most arresting screen performances by this gifted artist and activist, whom Martin Scorsese called “one of the greatest actors in the history of American film.” Select screenings will feature discussions with author J.R. Jones, film editor for the Chicago Reader, and Robert Ryan’s son, Cheyney Ryan, professor of law and philosophy at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at Oxford University.

Robert Ryan became a star after World War II on the strength of his menacing performance as an anti-Semitic murderer in the film noir Crossfire. Over the next quarter century he created a gallery of brooding, neurotic, and violent characters in such movies as "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Billy Budd," "The Dirty Dozen," and "The Wild Bunch." His riveting performances expose the darkest impulses of the American psyche during the Cold War.

Here's the lineup:

• ACT OF VIOLENCE (Fred Zinnemann, 1948)
Sept. 6, 4:15 PM; Sept. 8, 9 PM

• ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Sept. 7, 7 PM; Sept. 10, 7 PM

• THE NAKED SPUR (Anthony Mann, 1953)
Sept. 7, 9:00 PM; Sept. 9, 7 PM

• ABOUT MRS. LESLIE (Daniel Mann, 1954)
Sept. 10, 9 PM

• BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (John Sturges, 1955)
Sept. 6, 9 PM; Sept. 8, 7 PM

• GOD’S LITTLE ACRE (Anthony Mann, 1958)
Sept. 6, 6:15 PM; Sept. 9, 9 PM

I saw "The Naked Spur" yesterday and it was quite entertaining…



Here's more on Ryan in Artforum this past week.

Anthology Film Archives is on Second Avenue at East Second Street.

2nd Avenue, 8:23 a.m., Sept. 6

Morning!

It's really a nice morning out. Mostly. A reader shared this...

Here on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and B, we opened our doors to quite a spectacle of nature this morning. Pigeons feasting on a large pool of food waste right in the middle of the street... Can't wait until the rats show up!

Really glad someone seems to have thought it would be funny to throw a garbage bag in the middle of the street for cars to crush. Such a refreshing change from the overturned trash cans on the corner of 6th and A.

Apparently a resident will grab a shovel to remove this, but…

I really want to see the meathead who did this clean it up. With his or her bare hands, ideally.

Candy you were so fine

A little weekend entertainment via this clip from "The Arsenio Hall Show" from January 1991... when former Avenue B resident Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson of The B-52's were guests...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Go on a tour of Iggy Pop's East Village in 1993

Someone puts penis cake pan up for grabs on East 6th Street

Why not, we live among the land of the original penistrator ... and so many knockoffs...



Photos on East Sixth Street via Shawn Chittle

Some great reward

Thee Oh Sees (John Dwyer and a rotating cast of musicians) are out on tour in support of their latest release, Mutilator Defeated At Last.

They'll be playing at the Bowery Ballroom Tuesday (sold out!) then Thursday and Friday at the Warsaw.

From that new album, here's "Lupine Ossuary" (marked here as "Lupine Dominus" and with the band's previous lineup).

And how was your Thursday Happy Hour?

From an EVG reader:

This gentleman greeted people on Avenue A yesterday with a special happy hour show. He was fairly pleased with himself. The show ended with a grand finale where the naked gentleman spread his gluteal muscles for those interested in a closer inspection.

Death Star inflatable rat attack!

The inflatable union rat is currently perched outside 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star ...

EVG correspondent Steven reports that occupant St. John's University is the target... via the District Council No. 9 Painters and Allied trades, who are protesting claims of the school hiring workers and not giving them the wages and benefits that were established in the area by said District Council.



The crew is handing out flyers...



Maybe later the rat and rabbit can mix it up.

Developing: Uni K Wax Center sign is on its way up; lime green and violet never looked so good

Anyone who things the Friday before Labor Day is a slow news day, well — you're wrong.

This morning, crews are carefully putting into place the Uni K Wax Center signage here at 120 Second Ave. near East Seventh Street... behold the pleasing lime green-violet color combo...



The waxing center has also nailed the three most important qualities when it comes to waxing — all natural, safe AND affordable, at least in the opinion of this blogger.



As previously noted, the address here is returing to its spa roots. After a short-lived time as the froyo spot Twister, the storefront housed a Spa Belles.

Updated 12:03 p.m.

And ta-da!


[Photo by EVG waxing correspondent Steven]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former froyo spot will become body waxing center on 2nd Avenue, just because

A step back in time on the Bowery

The Subway (sandwich shop) closed on the Bowery at the end of June. The storefront at 342 Bowery between Great Jones and Bond is currently for rent.

While recently researching 342 Bowery, Jeff Klepper, who was born and raised in Manhattan and now lives in Boston, came across our Subway closing post.

He shared the following photo with us... of his great-grandfather, Aaron Klepper, in front of his diamonds and jewelry shop at 342 Bowery just about 100 years ago ...


[Photo courtesy of Jeff Klepper]

We asked Jeff for a few more details, such as if his great-grandfather and family lived in the apartment above the shop.

Aaron's daughter, my great-aunt Sue, talked about living "behind the store" in one large room, in which her father had built some partitions. There was no heat, except for a kerosene stove, and the toilet was outside in back. But I think she was referring to their tenement on Allen Street.

I'm guessing they moved to the Bowery around 1905, and probably lived in an apartment above the store, because she said that her father would "go upstairs" to sleep when he was ill.

Jeff said that this photo had been hanging in his house for years, but he never knew the street until one of his cousins figured it out based on the 1920 census records.

The former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office closer to demolition

Reps filed the demolition permits to take down the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office at 438 E. 14th St. last October...

And now workers are finally erecting the sidewalk bridge and requisite netting on the former PO's East 13th Street side...



As previously noted, an 8-story retail-residential building will eventually rise here. The residential entrance will be on the East 13th Street side.

The 114-unit residential portion will include exercise and rec rooms, a quiet lounge and private dining room.

SLCE Architects are listed as the designer of record. That firm's résumé includes such high-profile projects as 432 Park Ave. (with its $95 million penthouse) and the Blue building on the Lower East Side.

The PO closed in February 2014, though the wounds of waiting for a package that just isn't there remain fresh.

H/T EVG reader dwg!

Previously on EV Grieve:
UPDATED: Did you hear the rumor about the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office branch closing?

Report: Closure of the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office is pretty much a done deal

First sign of more development on East 14th Street?

Asbestos abatement to begin at former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office

Davey drill arrives ahead of rumored development at former East 14th Street post office

Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished

The former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office will yield to an 8-story residential building

New residential building at former 14th Street PO will feature a quiet lounge, private dining room

No more Bugs on East 12th Street

Bugs, the 15-seat sushi restaurant on East 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, has closed.

An EVG reader, who spotted the Bugs sign outside in the trash last night, said the chef-owner, Shoo Boo, is returning to her native Japan.

The restaurant opened three summers ago... and drew praise from The New York Times, who noted:

Ms. Boo decorated the restaurant herself, wrapping twine around the front door handle, pinning ears of dried corn to a wall and filling the counter’s red shadowbox top with mosaics of broken glass. Light bulbs, shrouded in raffia, huddle in rattan boats dangling from the ceiling. The chairs, nine along the counter and six more at tables, could have been plucked from a hair salon.

It is the kind of place you are relieved still exists in the East Village: tiny, a little kooky, with its own weather.

A look at 330 Bowery, now free of its sidewalk bridge

[Last week]

Last week, workers removed the construction wrapping from 330 Bowery (aka 54 Bond St.), the historic circa-1874 building at Bond Street.

On Wednesday, it was time for the sidewalk bridge to go away after a two-and-a-half-year refurbishment...







A John Barrett luxury hair salon is taking over the retail space here at the former Bouwerie Lane Theater.

H/T EVG reader Christina!

Previously on EV Grieve:
330 Bowery wrapped and ready

Life next to 98-100 Avenue A

After our post yesterday about the progress at Ben Shaoul's new building at 98-100 Avenue A, a reader who lives overlooking the site between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street shared some photos from this angle...



The reader, who often works from home, says that the years-long demolition and subsequent construction "has been hell."

Cracks in my walls, ceiling, etc., and the lovely noise from 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday - Saturday. I only have one window to see out of for the air conditioner as I put 3-inch foam in the others.

Updated 11:42 a.m.

Another neighbor shared another view...

E-Nail has closed on 2nd Avenue

That's it for the 10-year-old salon at 125 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Seventh Street.

One of the owners told EVG reader Carol from East Fifth Street that they had "lost a lot of business," though the owner didn't specify if that was the result of the deadly gas explosion on March 26 or the recent citywide crackdown on nail salons.

E-Nail was closed for nearly six weeks following the blast two storefronts away ... reopening on May 3.