At the start of the 2016 Drag March

The annual Drag March departed Tompkins Square Park last evening for the walk to the Stonewall Inn... here are a few photos from EVG contributor Stacie Joy...



















Rev. Billy was also there...




[Rev. Billy photos by Fallopia Tuba]

More photos to come...

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

The sausage truck was rolling in early this morning for the [Generic] street fair/festival of mozz sticks today on Fourth Avenue between East 14th Street to Ninth Street or so.

Workers were still setting up for the day...



So I uploaded this post courtesy of the new @LinkkNYC kiosk on Fourth Avenue at 12th Street while waiting to shop...

EVG on EVR

East Village Radio is rebroadcasting the special today that I hosted with East Village-based photographer David Godlis and publisher-curator Marc H. Miller.

Godlis has a new photo book, "History Is Made at Night," which chronicles the heyday of the scene at CBGB between 1976 and 1979. Miller is the guest curator of "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" going on now through July 31 at the Queens Museum. We talk about the Ramones. And photography. And CBGB.

It's on at noon and 8 p.m. Listen in via dashradio.com/EVR or the Dash Radio app.

ICYMI, @evgrieve w/Marc H. Miller & @GODLIS_photos, listen Saturday (6/25) 12pm ET/9am PT & 8pm ET/5PT on EastVillageRadio. @RamonesOfficial

— East Village Radio (@EVRadio) June 24, 2016

Godlis and Miller will also be out at the Queens Museum today for a day billed as Ramones Mania. Among the events: the New York Punk Rock Heavy Metal Flea Market and screenings of "Rock ‘n’ Roll High School" and "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones." Details here.

Enjoy your weekend, and mind the new 2nd Street sinkhole

Just a quick heads up as you start your weekend... sinkhole alert on Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Sinkhole bin

Ping @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/pI3M9dSDOd

— Jason Chatfield (@Jason_Chatfield) June 24, 2016

Wussy galore

Wussy released a well-received record back in the spring... the Cincinnati-based band plays the Bowery Ballroom on July 10.

The above video for "Dropping Houses" is a single off the most recent release.

Noted

Someone wrote a "Look up... Sometimes there are falcons" message in chalk right near where red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora have their nest with three youngins in Tompkins Square Park.

I'm thinking the message leaver:
• Was trying to be funny
• Doesn't know the difference between a falcon and a red-tailed hawk
• Was suggesting a band name — Sometimes There Are Falcons is pretty cool.

The 2016 New York City Drag March is tonight

Participants in the annual event will be gathering in Tompkins Square Park this evening... with the march starting at 8... and heading west to the Stonewall Inn.

We should have some photos from the Park to post later tonight or tomorrow morning...

Here's a 2015 pic from EVG contributor editrrix...

Looking at a cube-less (still) Astor Place

[Photo by Vinny & O]

The weekly Astor Place Construction bulletin (PDF) issued last Friday revealed that the Alamo would return on Wednesday to Astor Place...(Workers packed up and carted off the Alamo for safekeeping for the duration of the reconstruction back on Nov. 25, 2014.)



Perhaps city agencies all didn't confer on this. Despite this news bulletin inclusion, the Parks Department came out on Monday with an announcement that the cube wouldn't return until August, as amNY first reported:

Although there were fliers posted in the Village that gave a June 22 date for the art piece’s re-installation, the agency said it is being inspected by a conservator for final preparation.

“NYC Parks has historically contributed its expertise to the upkeep of the Cube,” Parks spokeswoman Maeri Ferguson said in a statement.

So, until August, please enjoy the ghost cube sticker... it doesn't spin, though...





Also, as we first reported on Tuesday, the first of Jim Power's mosaic lamp posts was put back in place, nearly two months ahead of what was expected.


[Photo via an EVG reader]

By the end of the day, workers wrapped up the light pole... which makes sense given that this is still an active work zone... (still curious about the timing on this pole's return...)



Also! The Astor Place Subway Plaza for the uptown 6 is coming together... workers have planted trees here...to replace the ones that got chopped down in October 2013...





Still no official word when all the reconstruction work will finally be complete on Astor Place and Cooper Square.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Alamo returns to Astor Place this Halloween

Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

This is what it might be like living inside the Alamo on Astor Place

RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube

[Updated] Neighbors ask Con Ed to water this tree 'dying of thirst'

Someone has placed a homemade sign in this dusty tree pit outside the Con Ed substation on Sixth Street at Avenue A...

"Dear Con Ed,

I am dying of thirst

Please... when you get a chance"

Updated 11:39 am

@evgrieve Hello. It might be a good idea to reach out to either the Parks Department or 311. ~RO

— Con Edison (@ConEdison) June 24, 2016

Iftar in the City on East 10th Street

[Photo by @GMKev]

Several readers told us about this dining scene tonight on East 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... we weren't aware of what this was.


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Here's the official word:

The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Community Affairs Unit, and the New York City Commission on Human Rights are delighted to invite you to the first ever Iftar in the City, a festive dinner celebration that will bring together NYC’s diverse communities during the Islamic month of Ramadan. We’ll join Muslim New Yorkers as they break their daily fast, and will dine along a communal table stretching the length of a city block! The dinner will offer a delicious halal and vegetarian menu, and accommodations will be provided for those who are observing the sunset prayer.

The dinner was from 7:30 to 9:30.

Here's a scene with diners in place...

Hundreds in attendance of outdoor Iftar in the City dinner by @NYCCHR, @NYCImmigrants @mayorsCAU pic.twitter.com/lXPqfj0fOu

— NYC Human Rights (@NYCCHR) June 24, 2016

Noted

St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue this afternoon... photo by Lola Sáenz

Take a spin through the 16th annual Bicycle Film Festival at the Anthology Film Archives

[A still from An African Race]

Via the EVG inbox...

The Bicycle Film Festival is a celebration of bicycles through film, art and music. Fri. - Sun., attendees can enjoy both short and feature films about biking from a variety of artists and directors at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. at Second Street.

• Friday (June 24 6 pm-11 pm) — Personal Gold will be making its New York premiere at 7 pm and encore at 9 pm. This feature film tells the behind-the-scenes story of four women on their journey to the 2012 Olympics. With the U.S. Men's Cycling Team banned from participating after the Lance Armstrong drug scandal, it was up to the Women's team to bring home the medal. These screenings will be followed by a Q&A panel including filmmaker/Olympic athlete Sky Christopherson.

• Saturday (June 25 1 pm-11 pm) – Several programs will be held throughout the day, Bicycle Stories (1 pm), Fun Bike Shorts (3 pm), Sven The Final Year (5 pm) and Urban Bike Shorts (7 pm & 9pm). These programs host a variety of short films covering topics like the history of bikes and personal bike experiences.

• Sunday (June 26 1 pm-11 pm) – This day of the festival will have programs including Greatest Hits (1 pm), Pauline And Molia – A Mythic Duel (3 pm), Adventure Cycling (5 pm), the BMX Program at 7 pm, which is considered one of the most fun and popular programs at the Bicycle Film Festival, and Ovarian Psycos (9 pm).

Find the full program here.

A theatrical tag sale, and your chance to dress like F. Murray Abraham

Classic Stage Company is holding its annual tag sale through Friday at 6 p.m. ... enter through Everyman Espresso in the theater's lobby on East 13th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...

As CSC notes on Facebook: "Shop early for great deals on quirky collectibles & elegant items from productions past, including furniture, props, and china!"

Yes, you WOULD look hot in this...

Featured items at the CSC Tag Sale include this robe, worn by #FMurrayAbraham in #CSCNathantheWise! Stop by the theater today thru Friday, 10am to 6pm.

A photo posted by Classic Stage Company (@classicstage) on Jun 22, 2016 at 9:06am PDT

Thanks to EVG reader Daniel for the top photo and tip!

Kafkaesque construction delays cause anger at The Neighborhood School on 3rd Street

[EVG photo from Monday evening]

The three-year renovation of The Neighborhood School and PS 63 on East Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue has reached a boiling point with parents and nearby residents.

And now the aptly named Kafka Construction, the company behind the renovations, which include asbestos removal, have been removed from the job.

Members of The Neighborhood School’s Health and Safety Committee issued a statement dated today:

After parents of The Neighborhood School (PS363) and The Star Academy (PS63) elementary schools gathered 600 signatures in just two days on a petition alleging three years of health hazards at their schools created by ongoing construction work — including rodent infestation in classrooms, homeless encampments at fire exits and drug paraphernalia and human waste at the school’s entrance — the NYC School Construction Authority (SCA), on June 13, terminated Kafka Construction’s contract. The company’s completion date over the three-year period had been postponed twice, and they showed no signs of intending to complete the work or caring about the ramifications.

The co-located elementary schools ... have been covered in scaffolding for three years, blocking all sunlight into classrooms and creating a neighborhood eyesore. Local politicians and DOE officials who toured the schools in early June were shocked by what they found. It was enough to compel the SCA to take “drastic actions,” firing Kafka and bringing in an emergency contractor to complete the work, ostensibly by the beginning of next school year.

Parents could no longer keep silent when they discovered that each morning before school started, school administration had been forced to clean hypodermic needles, vomit and feces, found on the premises, before the children’s arrival. This was a problem created by the ongoing scaffolding surrounding the building which created conditions for all kinds of undesirable behavior after school hours.

The school’s cleaning efforts didn’t prevent used syringes from being found during a daytime fire drill or by an after-school group playing in what is left of the school’s yard, which is largely covered by construction equipment.

The flower boxes in front of the school, which once housed beautiful plants, are now rat infested, as is the area behind the school where construction equipment is stored. The entire building now has a problem with vermin, and children have been known to shriek when they see a rodent scamper across the room during class.

Parents are relieved that Kafka has been fired, but remain concerned and skeptical that their kids will have a facility that is safe and an appropriate learning environment by September.

And here are some photos supplied by the parents...








[Syringes found against school wall during a fire drill]

A Kafka rep declined to comment to the Daily News.

Meanwhile, a resident who lives adjacent to the school sent along a few photos and commentary...





"We have had our lives turned upside down by this nightmare. It's been going on for over three years now and every year we're told the same thing. It will be done in August," the resident said. "We've called Kafka numerous times to complain. One particular instance...Kafka told us the project was delayed because they had to order a special kind of terracotta and it was only made by one company in California! They also told us to think of what a beautiful building it's going to be once it is completed. I'm sure the terracotta cost more than the teachers got in raises in the past 10 years or so.

"They could have build three new schools in the time it's taken them to renovate this one."

In early May, the artist JR and his Inside Out Project visited the school. The portraits of the students from Inside Out were then used to liven up the plywood on East Third Street...


[EVG photo]


[EVG photo]

The Kafka workers recently tore down the photos and tossed them in the dumpster. [Updated: The school had to remove the posters. The Department of Sanitation was going to levy fines for every poster, according to a parent. "Obviously frustrating but for an entirely different reason," per a parent.]



Per the resident: "You can name the post 'Dumpster full of children's tattered dreams of this project ever getting completed.'"

According to the Daily News, Department of Education officials are looking to secure a new construction company to finish the job. Officials are banning the Queens-based Kafka from taking new jobs with the city School Construction Authority for at least two years.

1 more in-store concert for Other Music

As you might expect, the selection at Other Music is starting to thin out a bit leading up to its last call on Saturday after 20 years in business.

However, there are still a lot of new releases available. (I like the new Psychic Ills ... I also picked up Thee Oh Sees: Singles Collection Volume Three.)

Despite the impending closure, there's still a relatively upbeat feel to the store, that it still has a purpose... unlike, say, Kim's Video & Music on First Avenue, which plodded along on a death march in the summer of 2014. A fixed closing date would have helped. (Add St. Mark's Bookshop to the slow, painful death march list.)

Meanwhile, there's one more just-announced, in-store performance on Tuesday, ahead of its farewell show at the Bowery Ballroom.

Here are details via the EVG inbox:

The final Other Music in-store performance will be with our good friends 75 Dollar Bill, at 5:30 on the 28th. One of our very favorite NYC bands, with a beautiful new album just out, we can't think of any better artist to bring to a close our 20-year in-store series.

And then we take our music to the streets! After the in-store, 75 Dollar Bill and the incredible Matana Roberts will lead us on a march from Other Music, across 4th Street, down the Bowery, to the Bowery Ballroom on Delancey. We want to celebrate 20 years of New York City music and arts culture with all of you, and we hope that whether or not you have tickets to the Bowery show, you will join us for this free event — let’s show NYC that music still matters! We will start gathering at Other Music at 5:30, and the parade will begin moving at 6:30, with Matana’s crew taking the lead, and 75 Dollar Bill bringing up the rear guard after their in-store performance.

The owners of the store at 15 E. Fourth St. between Lafayette and Broadway have cited rising rents and the changing face of the music industry as reasons behind the closure.

MSNBC has a report from Tuesday on Other Music here.

And at The New Yorker, Amanda Petrusich files an appreciation titled Why Record Stores Mattered.

An excerpt!

The store’s stock has always tended toward the abstruse. For many years, it was the only place in the city (and maybe on the East Coast) where you could find copies of great but commercially unpopular records: free jazz, certain strains of world music, Krautrock, long forgotten folk balladry. I bought my first albums by otherwise-unclassifiable artists like Arthur Russell and John Fahey at Other Music. I later read from my book about obscure 78 r.p.m. records there. Uncommon but extraordinary records were offered prominent shelf space, and serendipity was always in the air. Station yourself before the bins labelled “Out”—“Out” in the context of Other Music implied either intrepid or foolhardy experimentation, or maybe both—and see what calls to you.

Finally, some former OM staffers are also filming a documentary of the place... if you have anything to share...

If you want to share stories, photos, video or audio from @othermusic please email us: othermusicdocumentary (at) gmail (dot) com

— Other Music Doc (@OtherMusicDoc) June 14, 2016

Funkiberry-replacing pizzeria revealed on 3rd Avenue

Well! EVG reader Daniel sent along this photo from yesterday afternoon, when workers put up the signage for the new pizzeria coming to Third Avenue and East 12th Street.

As we noted a few weeks ago, workers said that the former Funkiberry would become a pizza place.

Anyway, as you can see, it's a Gotham Pizza. We're familiar with the name (there are several in the city), though we've never tried the pizza. Perhaps you have?

Before serving up FroYo here for nine months, the address was home to several pizzerias through the years... including more recently AAA (New) Amici Pizza ... and via a ghost signage reveal, Lawrence & Paul's Pizza & Restaurant...


[Photo by Dave from 2014]

And then there was the ghost signage under the Lawrence & Paul's Pizza & Restaurant ghost signage for Luigi's…


[Photo by ~evilsugar]

But there won't be any Funkiberry ghost signage some day. It's in FroYo Signage Heaven.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stuff that you can't make up: More FroYo for the East Village

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

DOUBLE ghost signage discovered at 88 3rd Ave.

Hey, the Funkiberry sign is up on 3rd Avenue

Hey, Funkiberry is now open on 3rd Avenue

Hey, the Funkiberry space is for lease on 3rd Avenue

Hey, the Funkiberry closed on 3rd Avenue

Hey, the Funkiberry space will become a pizzeria (again)

Stuyraq Swim Club now ready for the season

[Extell Lake photo from December 2014]

On East 14th Street, Extell Lake between Avenue A and Avenue B is now just etched in our memories, visions of endless nights hanging out at Blarney Cove Cove and having fun despite not even enjoying local access yet to rolled ice cream.

The foundation work has taken care of the issues with the underground stream that fed the cleansing springs of Extell Lake.

However, through the miracle of nature, we can now head one block to the west for a new watering hole ... at the Stuyraq Swim Club ...


[Photo by Brett W.]

Work continues at the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office, where there are currently approved plans for an 8-story, 114-unit (23 affordable, 91 market rate) mixed-use building here... and workers have struck water.

Reps for the developers (Benenson Capital Partners in association with the Mack Real Estate Group) are lobbying to receive a zoning variance for a 12-story building. In an analysis of the plot, the developers note that "unusually elevated groundwater levels and exceedingly soft and unstable soil (owing to the presence of an underground stream) ... result in extraordinary construction costs."

Last week, Community Board 3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee tabled the a vote on the zoning variance, asking the reps to return with alternatives to increasing building height.

Meantime here, mud baths are available.

Godlis at Night

[Image via @GODLIS]

East Village-based photographer David Godlis has a new book, "History Is Made at Night," which chronicles the heyday of the scene at CBGB between 1976 and 1979.

There's a publication party tomorrow night with a slideshow and talk at 7 in the Howl! Happening space, 6 E. First St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

In a special airing Friday from noon to 2 p.m. (ET), Godlis will be my guest during an East Village Radio program. We'll be joined by Marc H. Miller, co-curator of "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" going on now through July 31 at the Queens Museum. We might talk about the Ramones.

Listen in via dashradio.com/EVR or the Dash Radio app.

Godlis will also be out at the Queens Museum on Saturday for a day billed as Ramones Mania. Details here.

Updated

The EVR show plays again today...

ICYMI, @evgrieve w/Marc H. Miller & @GODLIS_photos, listen Saturday (6/25) 12pm ET/9am PT & 8pm ET/5PT on EastVillageRadio. @RamonesOfficial

— East Village Radio (@EVRadio) June 24, 2016

Baby red-tailed hawks nearly ready to drop the baby and move out of the nest

I haven't had time to baby hawk watch this past week... and so I barely even recognized Christo and Dora's red-tailed hawk offspring in Tompkins Square Park... they've gotten so red-tailed-hawk like...





Photos today by Bobby Williams. Find more photos and details at Goggla's website here.

Noted

A photo posted by MR. PURPLE (@mrpurplenyc) on Jun 18, 2016 at 8:35am PDT

The New York Post checks in with a piece on how awful some rooftop bars are in the city, including Mr. Purple on Orchard Street between Houston and Stanton.

An excerpt:

The reality is that you have to wait an hour to even get to the roof, then another half-hour to purchase a can of beer, and your friends are still stuck in line while you’re surrounded by bottle-service-loving blowhards who flock to rooftop bars like moths to a flame.

Such was the scene on a recent Saturday at Mr. Purple (180 Orchard St.) on the Lower East Side. Young guys clad in white calf-socks and baggy khaki shorts nagged the bouncer at the ground-level waiting area, a glorified alley decorated with too-cheery pop art, and loudly contemplated whether they should slip him some cash to cut the line, as the coolest kind of people do.

They didn’t have any luck, but a gaggle of girls who entered screaming, “None of us are over 21!” did. The 15th-floor view is, admittedly, pretty great, with clear views of both the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building, though most of the patrons seemed more interested in staring at their iPhones than taking in the sights. If you don’t post a selfie and spend all evening checking your “likes,” did you ever really make it up onto the roof?

Meanwhile, the June 20 edition of The New Yorker has a short review of Mr. Purple.

Per writer Sarah Larson:

Aiming for a kind of neighborliness, the proprietors named the bar after the eccentric L.E.S. icon Adam Purple, a community-garden activist with a dark past, offending locals and relatives alike. The luxury-on-Ludlow vibe is equally uneasy. The interior, meant to evoke an artist’s loft, leads to two outdoor patios, with chaise longues, purple chairs, staggeringly gorgeous views, and a swimming pool. “This is horrible!” a neighborhood man said on a recent night, scowling. “It’s like a disco bar in Thailand in 1995.”

And!

And how are the drinks? In an age of near-universal craft-cocktail excellence, they are mediocre, pricey, and boldly unsubtle, served in acrylic.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple (44 comments)

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood (25 comments)