I'm trying to map out where to meet Gerhardt DeKunst, also known as G-man, an East Village-based costume designer, artist/activist, and martial arts instructor. I'm planning on documenting a colorful nighttime bike ride G-man is participating in late Saturday.
The ride covers a wide swath of lower Manhattan and we finally decide it might be best to connect at the starting point at the Washington Square Arch. The ride ends late, so we agree to catch up for some questions the following day.
How did this event come about?
The bike ride is titled: NYC Deep Playa Night Ride, referring to cycling around the vast “playa,” the dried-out lakebed where Burning Man is located. Saturday’s ride was the “Burning Man edition” because Burning Man was supposed to be this week and Saturday night is the climactic “burning of the man” event.
As it was not held this year, many groups were doing something as a stand-in for what they would have been doing if it was on, and for a feeling of continued engagement in the community.
Your ride is particularly tricked out. How do you find storage space for it in the East Village?
I built this bike specifically for riding at Burning Man and it has had a secondary life in NYC, participating in many parades and events like Mermaid Parade, Dance Parade and more. I am lucky to be one of the few in the city with storage room in the basement of my building. I built the bike to break down and compact for the purpose of shipping to Nevada.
What is the purpose of the group bike ride and how did you get involved?
The purpose of these rides is to generate and participate in a sense of community in this time of fractured society: to gather in a safe way — masks and social distancing required — and yet be able to convene and be part of something; to meet up with friends and the wider Burning Man community of NYC and once more feel like we are not isolated individuals oppressed by the pandemic and trying socio-political times, that we are more and can have and continue to have a sense of community.
And to be clear, this is not in the face of or in counterpoint to the protests: many of us are activists and deeply involved in the protests and support of fighting for justice and equity in society. This is in addition to that and a flexing of our creative and fun-loving sides that have been quashed in COVID-19 times.
How did people react to seeing it?
People in general are very positive seeing us ride by, especially at restaurants seating people on the street. We get cheers and whistles and clapping as we go by, because I think it cheers people up, a moment of passing fun that materializes from the darkness and dissipates, an impromptu parade of pedal-powered light-up delight.
Ace Bar returned to service on Thursday here at 531 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. They're open for curbside seating from 3-11 p.m. daily with a food menu that includes hot dogs.
Ace Bar, which opened here in 1992, is owned by the same folks who ran Bleecker Bar for 30 years. That bar closed on Aug. 30. "All of our efforts to negotiate a reasonable lease extension with our landlord have failed," the owners stated. They did leave open the possibility of a return elsewhere.
Meanwhile on Fifth Street... Tuome at No. 536 has debuted outdoor seating...
The Michelin-starred restaurant reopened on Aug. 27 for takeout and delivery. Their hours: Tuesday-Saturday 5-9 p.m.
Ace Bar and Tuome join Lavagna and Minca Ramen Factory in dining offerings on this stretch of Fifth near B.
Now if Sophie's could reopen one of these days at the other end of the block...
The NYPD is searching for three teen suspects accused of robbing then punching a 74-year-old woman Thursday evening on 14th Street at First Avenue.
According to ABC 7, one of the teen suspects snatched the woman's purse. When she realized what happened, she tried to confront the teen and was sucker punched by one of his friends.
SHOCKING VIDEO: A 74-year-old woman was punched in the face when she confronted a group of teens for snatching her purse on a Manhattan street, police say
The victim, who reportedly refused treatment at the scene, has lived in NYC since 1963. She told ABC 7 that she wants to see this stretch of 14th Street "cleaned up."
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Updated 9/12: Police have arrested the couple.
Meanwhile, the NYPD is looking for a man and woman accused of assaulting an MTA bus driver on Astor Place this past Monday evening.
Per amNY, the 35-year-old bus driver was traveling on his M2 route when he witnessed the couple threatening another passenger. He reportedly ejected the pair on Lafayette at Eighth Street.
When the driver went on break a short distance away outside 51 Astor Place, the man and woman forcibly opened the door ... the man then told the woman beat up the driver. She then punched him in the face.
There's a petition in circulation now asking for an executive order from Gov. Cuomo "to stop the City from demolishing East River Park during the pandemic."
Meanwhile, there's a crowdfunding campaign underway titled "East River Park Action Art Attack."
Here's the pitch:
We are raising money for paint and supplies for our Art Attack Project at the East River Park mid-September.
Our mission is to stop the destruction of our park by creating the biggest mural in NYC with the help of local artists, nonprofits, activists and local residents of the Lower East Side and East Village.
We plan to paint the entire promenade along the river from Montgomery to 12th Street — and the historic Amphitheater where Shakespeare in the Park began in the 1950s.
We are confident that with this Cultural Protest we plan to achieve the following:
- Buy more time for the city to to reevaluate the current plan.
- Do more intensive outreach with the community and the residents along the East River Park.
As previously reported: Last November, City Council signed off on the hotly contested flood-protection plan that will bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Construction is expected to start this fall.
You can read more about various community efforts at the East River Park ACTION website. You can find the city's East Side Coastal Resiliency Project website here.
In 99-cent pizza news, the 99-Cent Fresh Pizza & Hot Dog shop is now open at 131 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. Let us know if you try it. (For real.)
The Keith Haring sculpture — "Self Portrait" from 1989 — is no longer on its perch outside the DeathStar, aka 51 Astor Place. It has been MIA all week. No word on whether this is a temporary or permanent departure.
We reached out to the Keith Haring Foundation (see below)... and we'll see if anyone at No. 51 has an answer.
"The sculpture has been removed for minor conservation work, and will be reinstalled after this work is complete," Annelise Ream, director of collections at the Keith Haring Foundation, told me in an email. "We do not yet have a confirmed date for the return of the sculpture, as there may be some delays in light of the ongoing pandemic."
You may have seen and heard hard-to-characterize self-described imaginary rock band Pinc Louds performing and busking in Tompkins Square Park this summer, steadily drawing enthusiasts as their fan base grows.
A recent Saturday afternoon show I attended featured a hopscotch contest, joyful abandon crowd dancing, a movement meditation trash outing by Dance to the People, and the current somewhat psychedelic-sounding band lineup of guitarist/singer Claudi, Marc Mosteirin on bass, Raimundo Atal on the drums, and Marlon Cherry handling percussion.
It’s an enthusiastic, albeit socially distanced audience that has shown up to enjoy the performance and I got a chance to chat with Claudi afterward to ask about the origins of the band, what draws them to the East Village, how dance and movement became part of their shows, and about why live music events are so vital.
How did Pinc Louds come to be?
In 2015, I was going through a painful break up at the same time as I was doing some musical explorations with a friend who was visiting from Puerto Rico. People ask me about the voice I use. That voice came out of those months, bouncing around in my apartment while trying to create something new and beautiful that would help me get over the end of a long relationship.
In starting a new project, I found a freer, wilder side of myself. And this creature, who had been dormant inside me, started to write all these songs.
One day in September, when around four of these songs were finished, Joff Wilson invited me to play at the 6 & B Garden. I went there with a long lab coat and no pants — the closest thing to a dress that I had — and the stepdaughter of a friend insisted on putting makeup on my face. I went on stage looking like a deranged pharmacist, jumped up and down, wailed my songs and have never looked back.
I had so much fun playing that night that while waiting for the train at the Delancey Street subway station, I took out my guitar and played some more.
The response was good enough that I kept on doing this for the next few weeks and started getting invited to parties. At one of those parties I met Ofer Bear and Raimundo Atal, the original bass player and drummer of the band. I also got a wonderful flowered dress that I still use in a lot of our shows. The dress was pink and loud and so were we. And that is how Pinc Louds came to be.
What is your connection to the East Village? What made you choose Tompkins Square Park to busk?
Apart from that first show at the 6 & B Garden and others we did later at places like Otto’s Shrunken Head and Sidewalk Cafe, my main connection to the East Village is through the Delancey Street station. That’s where I did most of my busking throughout the first three years of the band.
The people I met there, the part-time residents, the vendors, cops, MTA workers, the rats and roaches and fish mosaics have been an infinite source of joy and inspiration for me.
I’ve always felt that the subconscious of the city lies in its subway tunnels. That is where it dreams. Subway stations are a magical place where these dreams escape the city’s dark subconscious and make it into our world. I keep a lookout for these fugitive dreams and try to turn them into songs.
But playing in the subway for too long can have adverse effects on the brain, especially in the summer. So the last two summers I’ve been going around the city looking for places where I can busk and not get kicked out by the cops. I played in the West Village a lot. There’s a wonderful little triangle right outside the Christopher Street station, in front of the Stonewall monument, but the cops kicked me out of there too many times so I had to keep looking.
After not busking in the street for months during the pandemic this year, I finally decided to go out and find a spot on June 20. I had never played in Tompkins because my experience with parks has always been that if you have an amplifier, the park cops will kick you out as soon as you say “mic check.”
But ... I decided to try it out that day. I played for about six hours and had the time of my life! I immediately knew that this was the ideal spot. I played next to two cop cars and they didn’t say anything. The park regulars cheered and offered me beer. It definitely felt, and feels, like I found a new home.
How do East Village audiences compare to those elsewhere?
At least on the street, East Village audiences are more alive and more human than any other audience I know, except for maybe Puerto Rico, and of course there’s a lot of Puerto Ricans in the East Village.
And by alive and human I mean they are not afraid to dance, they are not afraid to yell out whatever they’re feeling, they are not afraid to love and they are not afraid to fight. They are here in the moment and they are here to have a good time.
In just a month and a half of playing at Tompkins, I’ve made friends, I’ve made enemies, I’ve had people defend me from a guy with a bat who wanted to take my tip bucket, I’ve had a guy teach me how to fight, I learned how to read tarot cards, I’ve been given flowers and silverware and mysterious phone numbers and dirty notes and Argentinian empanadas ... it’s been absolutely wonderful.
Do you compose all your songs or do you also do covers?
Most of what we play is original songs and improvisations. I like the challenge of getting people to listen and stay for the whole show without having to reel them in with songs they already know. But if there’s a song that is very special to me, like “Si Nos Dejan” by José Alfredo Jimenez or “John I’m Only Dancing” by David Bowie, we’ll learn it and try to give it a Pinc Louds touch.
On social media, you often encourage your fans to come out and dance and at this concert, you had Dance to the People to perform a “movement meditation.” Why is dance a key component to your art?
As someone who’s done mostly rock- or pop-oriented music throughout my life, I never saw dancing as an integral part of the live concert experience. Of course it used to be one of the main motivations back in the origins of rock & roll, but growing up in the 1990s it just wasn’t something that was expected in a show, apart from maybe the occasional mosh pit.
Also coming from Puerto Rico, I would associate dancing with salsa or merengue music, and I was always put off by the rules one was supposed to follow in order to dance these genres.
Fast forward to 2016. I brought the Pinc Louds project to Puerto Rico where I was invited to play at a bakery/diy music venue. I played the same songs I had been playing in NYC, but for some reason people were dancing. And it was so much fun! It’s so amazing to feel how the music you make can affect the movement in a room; the stops and starts and flows in people’s bodies, what it makes them do with their hands and feet and eyes...and not only that but to know that nothing is set in stone. That you can change the speed, the groove, the intensity and the dancers will too. It is a real conversation. The most primordial conversation.
I love groove-based music that can make you dance, but I also love rock songs with a structure and a story and catchy melodies. So to be able to combine both those things is, to me, as good as it gets. I don't feel we’ve achieved our full danceability potential, but we’re definitely working on it.
I spied a plethora of instruments at your concerts including what is either a set of mbiras or kalimbas, the guiro, lots of percussive drums, in addition to guitar and bass. How do all the parts contribute to the unique Pinc Louds sound?
I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t really know music theory and half the time I don’t even know what chords I’m playing. I just go for what sounds good. So, many times I’ll write a song based on where the instrument I’m playing takes me. I’ll play around with a kalimba until I find a pattern I like and then I'll add a melody and so on.
And whatever that pattern and that melody are, I know it is due to the sound of that kalimba and how it made me feel and where it took my brain in that particular moment. If I had done the same thing on the guitar it would have been a different song.
The different sound textures also give the songs different personalities. So I like that if you go to a Pinc Louds concert you won’t be listening to guitar-bass-drum songs the whole time. I get bored easily with music, so I feel that bringing in different sounds will help keep the attention of anyone in the audience whose mind might be drifting off. Gotta keep people on their toes!
What’s next for the band, and how can people keep up with you?
I don’t think anyone knows what’s next for anyone at this point, with all that’s happening in the world. But for now, we’re definitely going to keep busking at Tompkins Square Park at least twice a week (usually Wednesdays and Saturdays). I’m trying to bring other bands to play too. We’re lending our battery-powered amps, mic stands, etc. to performers that want to join us, especially engaging artists who are honest and passionate and really want to connect with the audience and be a part of this community.
Apart from the park, we’ll play anywhere we’re invited. We’re trying to get as much playing in before winter returns, especially since we don’t know if music venues will reopen soon.
If venues don’t open, we’ll have to go back playing at home, doing Instagram and zoom shows, which is not my favorite thing to do since I can’t see if I’m making anybody dance or even smile...
You can keep up with the band on Instagram here and Facebook here. Contact them directly via email: contact@pinclouds.com. Look for the band in Tompkins Square Park tomorrow (Sept. 5) afternoon.
Updated 9/9: The NYC Parks GreenThumb, the entity overseeing the community gardens, has nixed the screenings Friday through Sunday at the Peachtree Community Garden over concerns about COVID-19.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on Avenue C is hosting an end-of-summer tradition — its 8th annual film fest, a four-evening event titled "Reel Ecologies: Films for a Sustainable City" that starts on Sept. 10 at Le Petit Versailles.
Here's the festival schedule with details via the EVG inbox:
• Thursday, Sept. 10: "InSects & FlowerSex (The Birds & The Bees)"
Le Petit Versailles, 247 E. 2nd Street, 8 p.m.
A lively, living mixed-media series of shorts featuring films from 1930s to 1970s. In keeping with Le Petit Versailles'legacy of creative disruption, the evening will include avant garde movies such as "Killers of the Insect World" and "Woody Woodpecker & The Termites from Mars" with live sound by LeLe Dai aka Lullady, a radio collage soundtrack by Jeanne Liotta and live soundtrack performances by Pinc Louds and by Richard Sylvarnes.
• Friday, Sept. 11: “The End of the World As We Know It”
Peachtree Community Garden, 236 E. 2nd St., 8 p.m.
Two short documentaries about sustainable farming in NYC — "Guerrilla Gardeners in Queens" and "Feeding the Future, New York City’s Experiment in Urban Agriculture Part 1: Grow" that show that urban agriculture is sustainable and doable — will serve as the introduction to the classic, dystopian food thriller, "Soylent Green" in an effort to provoke conversations around the long-term effects of big agriculture.
• Saturday, Sept. 12: "Food Justice in a Pandemic Society"
Peachtree Community Garden, 236 E. 2nd St., 8 p.m.
The documentary "Soul Fire Farm" examines the eponymous BIPOC-centered community farm in Upstate New York, which was created to end food apartheid. Marisa DeDominicis, who began her urban gardening exploits in the vacant lots next to the 13th Street squats, will introduce the film. Saturday's feature film is "A Place at the Table," a documentary nominated for Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that explores the economic, social and cultural damage caused by hunger in America.
• Sunday, Sept. 13: "Bee the Change"
Peachtree Community Garden, 236 E. 2nd St., 8 p.m.
The noble honeybee gets its own night with the screening of a film from educational leader "Bullfrog Films: Honeybees" is a short exploring the role of honeybees in a common garden. It will be introduced by a neighborhood beekeeper ... followed by "Dirt," a 52-minute documentary that chronicles the history of East Village community gardens.
You can find ticket info here. Pre-registration is required, and there is very limited seating for the Film Fest.
Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood... as well as observations on current events...
This past Sunday afternoon, aficionados of the canceled-this-year Mermaid Parade came together as socially distant as possible along Avenue B to pay homage to the annual Coney Island event as well as to support local businesses.
Organizers dubbed this Renegade Mermaid Parade as a cross between the Mermaid Parade and the Easter Parade complete with a fashion show/costume contest.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy was on Seventh Street and Avenue B for part of the festivities...
After spending part of the summer with outdoor dining, Ravagh Persian Grill has permanently closed on First Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
Management confirmed the closure via an Instagram message. Their locations in Midtown and on the Upper East Side remain open.
