Sunday, December 11, 2022
Sunday's parting shots
Week in Grieview
• Dec. 31 is the last day for East Village mainstay Dallas BBQ (Monday)
• DA-hosted East Village gun buyback nets 16 firearms (Tuesday)
• Part-time New School faculty reach a tentative contract agreement with the university (Sunday)
• Howl! Happening explores the history of street art and graffiti with 'City of Kings' (Wednesday)
• Bang a gone: Stomp's long run on 2nd Avenue concludes in January (Wednesday)
• It's 'Time for Christmas' with the book man of Astor Place (Wednesday)
• Bye Bye Blondie; hello Bad Brains? (Sunday)
• Kim's Video, storied film and music retailer in the East Village, gets the documentary treatment (Thursday)
• Checkpoint Santa (Saturday)
• Jay Joe's Classic Cuts now open on 3rd Street (Thursday)
• 1st Avenue old-timer Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant is being replaced by — obviously — a smoke shop (Monday)
• First Avenue Laundry Center is closed for now (Monday)
• A walk among the trees on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street (Friday)
• Hello again: Sidewalk on the NW corner of 2nd Avenue and 9th Street returns to view (Monday)
• A Panera To-Go is opening on University Place (Tuesday)
• The city serves notice to more abandoned East Village curbside dining structures (Tuesday) ... Workers remove Somtum Der's curbside dining structure (Saturday)
• Sacco has apparently gone out of business on 11th Street (Tuesday)
Part-time New School faculty reach tentative contract agreement with the university
Photo from Nov. 28 by Daniel Efram
After 25 days on strike, nearly 2,600 part-time faculty members at the New School and the Parsons School of Design have reached a tentative contract agreement.
Here's more via the New School website from last evening:
A Joint Statement from ACT-UAW Local 7902 and the New SchoolWe are extremely pleased to announce that ACT-UAW Local 7902 and the New School have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement. This is a strong, fair, five-year contract that increases compensation significantly, protects health care benefits, and ensures that part-time faculty are paid for additional work done outside the classroom to support our students.The union leadership will unanimously recommend this agreement to its members, and it will now go to part-time faculty union members for a ratification vote over the next few days. In the meantime, the union has ended the strike and all university classes and events will resume as scheduled effective immediately.
And from an Instagram post via New York Indivisible:
While the part-time faculty are saddened that the university’s intransigence at the bargaining table forced them to leave their classrooms and take to the picket line, they emerge from their work strong, organized, and eager to face the struggles ahead. This tentative agreement is only the beginning, and the part-time faculty will continue to take power back from The New School’s top executives and place it back where it belongs: with the faculty and students, without whom the university could not function.
As EVG contributor Daniel Efram previously reported, 95% of the faculty voted against accepting the last and best New School offer on Nov. 30.
From our last report:
"Part-time faculty have not gotten a raise since 2018," said Rachel Aydt, a 20-year part-time New School/Parson faculty member. "And the increase being offered amounts to 1.8% per year, which does not come close to the cost of living increases in New York City during this time."According to Annie Lee Larson, part-time faculty at the New School/Parsons, roughly 87% of the teaching faculty are part-time. They seek fair compensation, including for work performed outside the classroom, reliable health care, tangible recourse against discrimination and harassment, and job security.
The tentative agreement ends seven months of negotiations. The part-time faculty were to return to teaching as soon as today.
Bye Bye Blondie; hello Bad Brains?
Our friend Alex took this photo (be sure to check out his site Flaming Pablum) ...
Shepard Fairy — in connection with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC — created this mural in August 2017, replacing the two-year-old Joey Ramone/CBGB mural.
Word is the space will give way to another CBGB favorite — Bad Brains.
By the way, CBGB debuted on Dec. 10, 1973, across the way at 315 Bowery.
Saturday, December 10, 2022
Checkpoint Santa
Photos by Stacie Joy
During SantaCon today in the East Village, the 9th Precinct had two checkpoints set up for several hours ... one on Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street ... and on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street...
Officers at the scene said they were there to monitor quality-of-life issues, with tickets for open containers (and at least one minor with alcohol).
SantaCon started this morning at 10 on 40th and Broadway, with 60-plus bars throughout Midtown East and West and elsewhere participating ... as well as eight East Village bars officially taking part ... with others following suit.
There were also more than a dozen (by our unofficial count) bars and restaurants with a Santa ban.
At the movies
Meanwhile, on the fence about "Bones & All."
Find theater info here.
Workers remove Somtum Der's curbside dining structure
The streetery didn't appear to be in use any longer. Plus, as of June, this lane south of Sixth Street is a No Standing zone, and parking is not allowed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week.
The signs arrived ahead of the new Bus Only lane on the southbound section of Avenue A.
The nearby Takahachi removed its curbside structure back in August.
Updated:
Saturday's opening shot
Friday, December 9, 2022
Do it Clean
Hamish Kilgour, a founding member of New Zealand's The Clean, died this past week at age 65.
Here's more about the influential (and underappreciated IMO) band via NPR:
The Clean's open, do-it-yourself approach certainly stood the test of time, crystallized in a lyric Kilgour wrote: "Anything could happen and it could be right now / And the choice is yours, so make it worthwhile." That aesthetic heavily impacted later indie rockers such as Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Superchunk. The band's influence extended into numerous scenes around the world, from the Elephant 6 collective in America, to current bands like The Courtneys in Canada and The Beths back in New Zealand. They've all found inspiration in The Clean's impulsive creativity and lack of pretense.
The above video for "Dunes" from 1989 was filmed in NYC... and you'll spot some familiar and long-gone music venues on the Bowery and East Houston and elsewhere.
One shining moment (hopefully)
Photos by Steven
We've noted that the lights need to be fixed on the holiday tree in Tompkins Square Park.
But!
Full illumination is on the way ahead of Sunday's lighting ceremony.
Parks employees were on hand this morning working on the lights...
And as a reminder, the holiday tree lighting is this Sunday (Dec. 11) from 4-5 p.m.
The 31st edition features familiar names: the Carolers of Olde New York from Theater for the New City and music from the Mandel & Lydon Trio ... with refreshments via Veselka and C&B.
A walk among the trees on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street
Photos by Stacie Joy
The Tree Riders have the most picturesque seasonal workspace in the neighborhood ... on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street outside the historic St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery.
The vendors recently started their 12th year here... EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently walked through the 24/7 tree stand for a little holiday spirit ...
The list of other local tree sellers includes vendors on Astor Place (at Lafayette), Essex and Houston, and 14th Street at First Avenue.
Details about the Risograph Holiday Market on Cooper Square
Printed Matter will be offering a wide range of risograph publications (from new titles to some deep cuts from the archives)... as well as some baked goods.
The market is taking place tomorrow (Dec. 10!) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at dieFirma's space on the ground floor of 32 Cooper Square (between Fifth Street and Sixth Street).
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Thursday's parting shot
1 month left of 'Stomp'
The closing is "due to declining ticket sales," a spokesperson for the production told The Hollywood Reporter.
Ticket sales weren't an issue for today's noon matinee ... as there were long lines for entry. (Thanks to Steven for the photo!)
Noted
Details on the 6th annual East Village Arts Festival at the Tompkins Square Library branch
This year's theme is "All About the Neighborhood," and features an array of local artists, musicians and writers.
You can head to the library's website here for a full list of participants.
The free in-person events, including readings and musical performances, take place from 3-7 p.m.
The library is at 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Kim's Video, storied film and music retailer in the East Village, gets the documentary treatment
Some background first. After the multi-level Mondo Kim's closed at 6 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue in December 2008, the shop's massive collection of 50,000-plus tapes and DVDs were shipped off to a town in Sicily, as Jeremiah Moss first noted.
The plans called for "a Never-ending Festival — a 24-hour projection of up to 10 films at once for the foreseeable future ... and, eventually, the conversion of all Kim's VHS films to DVDs to ensure their preservation."
And eventually, the plan was for Kim's members to have access to digitized versions of all these films, an assortment of cult classics and hard-to-find treasures. (Didn't go so well in Italy.)
So Variety has the scoop on the doc, directed by award-winning filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin.
"Kim’s Video" follows modern-day cinephile and filmmaker David Redmon on a quixotic quest to track down the whereabouts of the massive video collection of the now-defunct Kim's Video, an iconic NYC video rental store with more than 55,000 beloved and rare movies.
More plot!
Playing with the forms and tropes of cinema, David's bizarre and increasingly obsessive quest takes him to Sicily, where he becomes entangled in a web of local politics, and to South Korea, where he tracks down the enigmatic Mr. Kim in the hope of influencing the collection's future.
"Kim’s Video" will open the Sundance Film Festival's NEXT section in January.
The Kim's empire had a modest start in Yongman Kim's dry-cleaning business at 99 Avenue A in 1986 ... the last Kim's Video & Music closed in 2014.
The massive collection of DVDs and videos from Kim's Video is now available to rent from the Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan. (Background on all this here.)
Previously on EV Grieve:
Jay Joe's Classic Cuts now open on 3rd Street
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Jay Joe's Classic Cuts debuted earlier last week at 256 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.
The business evolved from Raul's Barber Shop, which recently closed — courtesy of a rent increase — after decades on Avenue B. In addition, Raul Velez Sr., who ran the shop at 11 Avenue B between Houston and Second Street for 61 years, decided to retire at age 81.
Edgar Joe Velez (pictured below) is one of three owners ... along with his brothers Benny Velez and Steven Velez Gonzalez. All three are Raul's nephews. (The new shop is named for Edgar Joe's 15-year-old son).
You can expect to see some familiar faces from Raul's here.
Jay Joe's is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The phone: (718) 578-9559. And you can find the shop on Facebook.
SantaCon 2022 route revealed
Organizers have released the official route, which is not too different from last year's edition.
The official festivities begin at 10 a.m. on 40th Street and Broadway. Per the SC website: "Santa is Painting the town Red
We will be dancing in the streets and Santa will unleash a holiday celebration NYC has never imagined possible!"
A $15 "donation" gets your Santa Badge and access to 60-plus participating bars, mainly in Midtown West and East.
This year, eight of the bars are in the East Village:
• Amsterdam Billiards & Bar, 110 E. 11th St. at Fourth Avenue
• Bull McCabe's, 29 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
• Coyote Ugly, 244 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
• Doc Holliday's, 141 Avenue A at Ninth Street
• The Grayson, 16 First Ave. between First Street and Second Street
• Horseshoe Bar/7B, 108 Avenue B at Seventh Street
• The Phoenix, 447 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue
• Solas, 232 E. Ninth St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
However, as we've seen in previous Cons, bars not on the official list are often all too happy to participate, including the 13th Step on Second Avenue.
Shiny Galeani, an NYC SantaCon organizer, provided some damage control in a recent interview with Gothamist.
"Every year we get a lot of press that shines a negative light on SantaCon. I understand and certainly it'll get more clicks." But, she said, some of the coverage felt a little unfair, focused on specific incidents from a decade ago."People have all kinds of preconceived notions about what we are and why we do it," Galeani said. "A lot of it stems from bad press that we got a long time ago, and that’s a bummer."
And don't call it a pub crawl!
"It's definitely not a pub crawl because there is no order and you don't have to drink." Many bars, Galeani said, will serve mocktails. The biggest misunderstanding, of course — the one that goes beyond definitions and logistics — is that folks just don't get SantaCon.SantaCon is about "community and absurdity and the holiday spirit," said Galeani. She marveled at its ability to take over a place as big as New York City with sheer silliness. It is open to everyone.
Apparently, the MTA didn't get the "it's not a pub crawl" memo. The MTA is banning booze on LIRR and Metro-North Trains and stations for 32 Hours for SantaCon (from 4 a.m. Saturday to noon Sunday).
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