Photo by Derek Berg
Just 2.5 months until Halloween. This evening, outside Beetle House on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Friday, August 15, 2025
In your dreams
We are fans of Nabihah Iqbal, a musician, writer and DJ from London. Iqbal has been living locally lately, and on Sept. 8, she will be playing with a full band at Night Club 101 on Avenue A. (Tickets.)
The video here is for the title song from her 2023 release, Dreamer.
Friday's opening shot
Does anyone know who cleaned up this space? (And who will water it?)
Thursday, August 14, 2025
'Mistress America' screens tonight in Tompkins Square Park
As previously noted, the Lower East Side Film Festival is bringing its free summer screening series back to Tompkins Square Park.
Here's what is on the docket:
• Aug. 14 — "Mistress America"
• Aug. 27 — "Summer of Soul"
• Sept. 19 — "Birdman"
Each screening (roughly at 8:30 p.m.) begins with a short film by a LESFF alum, followed by the feature presentation. The screenings take place in the center of the park where the bands usually perform on weekends.
The invite promises "complimentary refreshments and surprises throughout the night."
Lola Kirke, a local resident and co-star of "Mistress America," will introduce the film, directed by Noah Baumbach from a script he wrote with lead Greta Gerwig.
The series is in partnership with presenting sponsor Searchlight Pictures and local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein ...with community support from East Village Community Coalition, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and Loisaida Inc. Center.
Find more info here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
A rare look inside the Basilio Scientific School Association on Avenue B
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
If you've ever walked along Avenue B between 12th Street and 13th Street, you've certainly passed the two-story Basilio Scientific School Association building.
The place, which appears to be an industrial business, is rarely open. So when I recently saw someone heading inside, I couldn't resist asking for a look.
The person who let me in gave a quick tour. There's a director who was not here at the time.
According to the group's website, this is a school (no football team) that follows the Disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.
To the mini tour ...
Where gallery meets shop: A look at 'Art Bodega' on 3rd Street
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The recently opened group show "Art Bodega," presented by TW Fine Art and CLLCTV, features a rotating selection of sculptural objects, functional works, and other pieces that sit between art and design.
Per the organizers: "Shoppers will discover a curated selection of sculptural objects, functional works, and
unique pieces that blur the line between art and design."
The exhibit is up through Sept. 30, with new works appearing throughout the summer. Several artist-led workshops are also planned. You can check the TW Fine Art Instagram account for updates.
Here's a look inside the gallery...
CLLCTV is at 209 E. Third St., just east of Avenue B. The space is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
P.S.
TW Fine Art was also responsible for creating the felt wonderland of the felt bagel shop here in 2023.
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Wednesday's parting shot
The entire northern section of East River Park, including the running track, closes on Sept. 8
Beginning Monday, Sept. 8, the entire northern stretch of East River Park, from Houston Street north, will close as crews working on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR) continue clearing the land.
Meanwhile, the Corlears Hook Pedestrian Bridge will reopen on Thursday, Sept. 5, reconnecting the Lower East Side to the waterfront via a new overpass. The day will also bring back the flagpole area at Corlears Hook Park, plus a batch of long-awaited East River Park Phase 1 upgrades: six more tennis courts, a new amphitheater, esplanade and seating areas, and direct access to Pier 42 and the Corlears Hook Ferry Terminal.
The closure means that the three East Village access points to the Park — from Houston, Sixth and 10th streets — will shutter, and all park access, including the track and field area and esplande off of the Sixth Street Overpass, will no longer be available to residents for the duration of the billion-dollar stormproofing, expected to be complete by the end of 2026.
The 10th Street overpass and access closed on July 13.
The city spent $2.8 million to upgrade the running track off of Sixth Street during a year-long renovation in 2017-18.
This map shows the areas that will be open and closed as of Sept. 8...
The city has stated that it will maintain public access to at least 42% of the park throughout construction.
The "phased work operations" in East River Park commenced in November 2021, in Project Area 1, located between Montgomery Street and 15th Street. Workers have been burying the park under fill and cutting down hundreds of trees as part of the billion-dollar-plus ESCR. They are elevating the land 8 to 10 feet above sea level to protect the area from future storm surges.
Openings: Gelatin Labs on 1st Street
This is the first retail storefront (they have a lab in Maplewood, N.J.) for the family-owned business specializing in developing, scanning and printing 35mm film, disposable cameras, and 120 film, in color and black and white.
Hours:
• Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
And because someone will bring this up: The long-closed Pac Lab was in the western storefront at this address.
Owners of C as in Charlie and Kisa ink lease at former Ferns space on 1st Avenue
The hospitality group signed a 10-year lease ($24K per month) at 166 First Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street for an unnamed new Korean concept, according to broker Meridian Capital Group and the Commercial Observer.
C as in Charlie opened at 5 Bleecker St., just west of the Bowery, in 2022, while the Korean diner Kisa debuted last year on the SW corner of Allen and Houston.
The bistro-bar Ferns closed at 166 First Ave. in February after more than seven years in business.
This might be the First great deli name we’ve seen in a while
The place sells cold beverages, snacks, smoking accessories, and more.
And this was an ultra-quick storefront turnaround. The last tenant, the dessert joint Tiki Tiki, just closed at the end of July.
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Tuesday's parting shots
Current tenant: Atelier Jolie.
Also late this afternoon, Basquiat's onetime collaborator Al Diaz left a new SAMO© message here...
Noted
Basquiat — he didn't die — he got licensed.
Jean-Michel Basquiat died on this day in 1988 while living and working at 57 Great Jones just west of the Bowery.
The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival returns to Tompkins Square Park this Aug. 24
The multi-day event will be here on Sunday, Aug. 24, from 3-7 p.m. (A DJ will start at 2 p.m.)
Here is this year's lineup (hit this link for details on the performers):
• Bill Charlap / Dee Dee Bridgewater
• Gary Bartz and NTU Troop
• Jazz Gallery Allstars
• LucÃa
If you're a big Parker fan, there are many other events taking place around the city beginning on Sunday.
The festival, which started in Tompkins Square Park in 1993, holds a significant place in the jazz community. It takes place near or on Parker's birthday on Aug. 29. Additional dates were added in Harlem in 2000, further expanding its reach.
Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950 to 1954. That residential building between Ninth Street and 10th Street is landmarked.
Croc stump tree well gets a refresh on Avenue A
A reader later informed us that work was happening in the tree well outside the storefront. (The initial report was that the stump had been completely removed.)
It turns out that workers cleaned up the area, added a barrier, and moved (and anchored) the crocodile-shaped tree stump...
This is the work of Ian Dave Knife, who has created art from dead tree stumps around the neighborhood and other locations. The croc arrived in December 2019.
In August 2020, the owners of the now-closed August Laura reportedly painted the stump green and gave it a pink tongue. None of this pleased the artist. Article here. The paint has mostly worn away over the following years.
Anyway, we're happy to see that someone values the street art enough to keep it here.
Monday, August 11, 2025
Monday's parting shot
Crews will be in the neighborhood for the next two days, as we mentioned in this post.
Video: Fight spills onto the tracks at 1st Avenue L stop
The cause of the fight is unknown, but both men were lucky a train wasn't coming.
One of the men is able to get back to the platform by himself... the other needs help from a fellow rider.
The arguing continues on the platform, with one man tossing the other's belongings onto the tracks.
Although the video was posted at 6:22 this evening, it isn't clear when the fight actually happened. It looks a bit sparse for that time of day.#NYShitty🗽💩; Drunken Brawl at #NYC’s #FirstAve Station Spills Onto Rails — Good Samaritan Rescues Man, Rival Tosses Belongings Back Onto Tracks pic.twitter.com/JE9zb4aHLE
— New York Shitty (@NyShittyNews) August 11, 2025
H/T Kent
RIP Michael Lydon
Photo by Steven
Michael Lydon, a longtime East Village resident, musician, author and rock journalist, died on July 30. He was 82.
According to The New York Times, he passed away from complications of Parkinson's disease.
Residents are probably familiar with him from recent years, as he and his longtime wife, Ellen Mandel, were active in the local community, performing as Lydon & Mandel at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Third Street Music School Settlement, the Tompkins Square Park tree lighting, and various block parties.
However, for many generations of music fans, he was known for his writing about the top music events of the day and bands such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones.
He was an early top editor at Rolling Stone and wrote some 20 books, including "The Rolling Stones Discover America," "Ray Charles: Man and Music," and "Rock Folk: Portraits From the Rock 'n' Roll Pantheon."
It's no surprise he chose a life surrounded by music. As he wrote on his website:
I love music. We had a piano in my big Boston Irish family; my mother sang Handel, my father loved John McCormack. An aunt gave us the Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall LPs — I flipped for "Sing Sing Sing." In high school, I wore out my Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington records, but convinced I'd never learn to play jazz, I became a writer instead.
Here's an excerpt about his early career and a college-era pan of the Beatles ... via the Times:
As a young Newsweek correspondent fresh from Yale University, he arrived in London in the mid-1960s — a time when the postwar generation, with its taste for avant-garde fashion and rafter-rattling rock, was aiming to blast the bowler hats from the heads of the country's traditionalists.It was there that he met the Beatles, whom he had derided as "poor foreign imitations" of the American rock 'n' roll originals in a 1964 article for The Yale Daily News.
"Whenever the first strains of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ begin to twitch my stirrup bones,” Mr. Lydon wrote, "I send out silent screams for help to Chuck Berry, Elvis" and others "who have long defended the American way of rock."His view changed after the Beatles' landmark 1965 album, Rubber Soul, with its nuanced and introspective songwriting. The album seemed to change the Beatles' view of themselves, too. "You don't know us now if you don't know 'Rubber Soul,'" John Lennon told Mr. Lydon in a 1966 interview. "All our ideas are different now."
Read more about his life at the Times here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
A look at the coming-soon Corner Bistro
Photos by Stacie Joy
In late July, someone wrote "Corner Bistro Coming Soon" in green paint on the windows at the currently vacant 94-96 Avenue A at Sixth Street. This likely was not the official coming soon signage the business had planned.
Anyway, the West Village burger institute is opening an outpost in the East Village, as we first noted here.
We've been waiting to get more information on timing, etc. However, we haven't heard back from ownership or the attorney who represented Corner Bistro during the May Community Board 3 meeting. CB3 signed off on the liquor license application in May.
There is also a public notice on the door for a 500-foot hearing with the State Liquor Authority (SLA) dated Aug. 1.
According to the SLA website, the license remains pending...
To date, we haven't seen much activity from the storefronts, which housed the sports bar Offside Tavern until late last year. Before that, August Laura had a brief run beginning in October 2019 but faced a stop-start schedule during the pandemic and finally closed in December 2021.
The address is best known as the longtime home of Sidewalk — the restaurant, bar, and live music venue (and host of the Antifolk Festival) that closed in February 2019 after a 34-year run.
Corner Bistro opened in 1961 on West Fourth Street in the West Village. Elizabeth McGrath — daughter of Corner Bistro's original owners, Bill and Lorraine O'Donnell — took over the business in 2015.
This wouldn't be the burger institution's first time branching out. Corner Bistro opened a location in Long Island City in 2012, which shuttered in 2020 due to pandemic-related pressures. An outpost at the Gotham West Market food hall in Hell's Kitchen also closed in 2020.
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