Whiteout complete at Tu Casa

[June]

Ugh. As noted Saturday, workers began whitewashing the great mural outside Tu Casa Recording Studio on Avenue B...

Mission accomplished.





There was a tag sale at the space in June... there was talk that the studio was relocating to Brooklyn, but we never heard any confirmation of that. The Tu Casa phone number is currently disconnected.

There's currently a listing for the space in the co-op building.

Ground and first floor are zoned commercial, third and fourth floors are zone Residential

Description

Ground floor Commercial Store, presently used as a music studio, 12ft ceilings. Suitable for all kinds of legal retail use

The current price is $1.095 million.

Tu Casa has been around since 1972.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Is a Rite Aid now home to the most interesting mural in the East Village?

Strange days that Rite Aid on First Avenue and East Fifth Street has one of the more interesting murals around... As EVG Senior First Avenue Rite Aid Correspondent Goggla has been reporting these last few days/weeks... The Royal Kingbee UW, a Bronx-born graffiti artist, has been bringing new life to a moribund store... (the exterior anyway!)

Kingbee and Vase1 have added some more touches...





We hear that Kingbee and Vase1, who specialize in urban and rural landscapes, will also be painting the exterior at the Avenue D Rite Aid one of these days...

Oh, and what about the inside? You know, the Rite Aiders cleaned up the inside and ditched the carpet... and they've introduced several new products, such as!



Remember: Gluten-free doesn't mean taste free.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] As the Rite Aid turns (colors)

Rite Aid's enchanted forest

How green is Rite Aid's valley?

[Bobby Williams, 2012]

Apartment 13 nearly ready for occupancy

Dave on 7th notes that the plywood came down at the former location of The Porch on Avenue C between East Seventh and East Eighth Street... Apartment 13 is the new bar-restaurant from Paul Seres, the former president of the New York Nightlife Association and a partner in The DL on Delancey and Ludlow...



A quick refresher on the concept, via CB3 paperwork:

All entrees at Apt 13 will be market driven and will be served in the same style as Korean barbeque. Every dish will be served with side dishes, appetizers, condiments, sauces, salads, and garnitures. Seasonally and locally driven. Family styled dinners. Meant to feel reminiscent of an intimate sit down dinner in our apartment. All dishes will change based on market availability. In following the theme and mission statement of apartment 13 we strive to not only support our local state Farms but also our neighborhood by featuring local artists and supporting local businesses.

There was opposition to this application. CB3 OK'd the liquor license in December (it failed to get the green light in October) ... we wrote about it in December. (Revisit that here.)

No word yet on an opening date.

Max Fish closes tonight

Contrary to previous published reports, Max Fish closes after tonight on Ludlow Street.

There's a feature on the bar closing in The Wall Street Journal today... (Subscription required)

Said owner Ulli Rimkus:

"I wish it could be around forever," she said, dumping the walkway trash into a garbage can. "I wish I could pass it on to a daughter, have it around for 80 years. But if you don't own the building, what can you do?"

And!

"In 1989, our neighbors were all artists and musicians—it was perfect," Ms. Rimkus said, now sitting at the curvy bar, the Velvet Underground blasting over the stereo. "It changed when we started to see all our neighbors disappearing."

The bar, which opened in 1989, will have a new location in Williamsburg this fall.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

Noted

The Philosophical Zombie passes this along this evening on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Sewage in Tompkins Square Park

Sewage, led by Spike Polite, was one of the bands on today's 25th Riot Reunion bill in Tompkins Square Park.

There will be more bands and speakers in the Park next weekend. Check the Facebook event page for more details.

Photo by peter radley.

Week in Grieview

[Sixth Street and A, reader submitted]

An assault at Theatre 80 (Monday)

Remembering Deontay Moore (Tuesday)

DA charges curb-crash driver with vehicular assault (Monday)

Crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker raises nearly $19,000 (Monday)

The Odessa Cafe and Bar closes for good on Aug. 15 (Thursday)

East 14th Street now free of pesky local businesses (Thursday)

The Yippie Museum space reopens on Wednesday (Thursday)

Kita goes on vacation (Friday)

About Max Fish closing (Thursday)

A paramedic talks about her love of the East Village (Wednesday)

Katie Holmes returns to the East Village (Wednesday)

Ben Shaoul on flipping the former Cabrini Center (Wednesday)

Jehovah's Witnesses sprouting a 7-floor luxury residence (Monday)

A city without rent regulations (Tuesday, 46 comments)

Sarkozy-Olsen 'love nest' on the block (Monday)

The Standard East Village has a new garden entrance (Monday)

Noted

In case you were looking for a Studded Johnny Ramone© t-shirt at Forever 21... here's me modeling it...



[H/T Dangerous Minds]

A tree pit grows on East 10th Street

Just noting some work on East 10th Street between Avenue B and Avenue D...



... workers have been expanding the tree pits ...





Top photos via Bobby Williams...


[Via Fashion by He]

Updated: See the comments for an explanation about this...

At Pogopalooza 10 in Tompkins Square Park

Pogopalooza 10, the annual world championship of the sport of extreme pogo, took place this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park.

Per the xpogo website:

Xpogo athletes from across the world attempt to qualify for spots in the next-day’s finals in three disciplines: Big Air, Best Trick, and High Jump. The qualifiers are open, so on-site sign-ups are permitted. Throughout the day, athletes will be attempting to break all of the 13 recognized Xpogo World Records, in association with Guinness World Records.

And word was that Biff Hutchinson broke his own record for Highest Frontflip at 8'2" ....



The finals are tomorrow afternoon in Union Square. Any Pogopalooza reaction from those who were in the Park today? Someone described it as a "shitshow" — but not in a good way.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Reader report: DOA in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Derek Berg]

A sad scene this morning. Multiple readers pass along word of a police investigation in the lawn at Tompkins Square Park early this morning...

Police investigating a dead body in Tompkins square park. Very grim. @evgrieve @Gothamist

— Danny M. (@trealist_) July 27, 2013

According to witnesses, someone discovered the body of a man in his mid-twenties. Early word is that this was the result of a drug overdose. However, this has not been confirmed.

Will update later when we hear more details...

Updated 8:15

WCBS New York had a short report on the discovery... Per WCBS, the man was discovered round 8:20 a.m. ... the man was said to be in his 30s.

The man who found the body contacted Gothamist...

I am the person who noticed him, found him unresponsive, and knew he looked dead. I didn't touch him and asked around if anyone knew him because he was in a bad way, and some people said they think he had been there like that all night.

Witnesses said authorities removed the body around 12:30 p.m.

Sunday: the first of the 25th Annual Tompkins Square Riot Reunion concerts

[Flyer created by Fly]

Tomorrow afternoon in Tompkins Square... the first of the 25th Annual Tompkins Square Riot Reunion concerts... the lineup:

-Fever Dream
-InCircles
-Team Spider
-Sexual Suicide
-Ruckus Interruptus
-Roger Manning
-Sewage

We'll have more on the shows and the Riot reunion later next week... Here is the Facebook event page for more details.

The whitewashing of the East Village continues

[June]

As noted last month, Tu Casa Recording Studio is leaving its longtime home at 95 Avenue B between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street.

Early last evening, EVG reader Ann noted that workers were starting the paint over Tu Casa's mural...



Tu Casa has been around since 1972. A very lengthy list of musicians have played here through the years... including Butch Morris, Black Flag, the Bush Tetras, Dee Dee Ramone, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs... (Find more names here.)

We don't know if Mario is moving Tu Casa to a new space in Brooklyn ... or closing altogether. We called Tu Case, though the number has been temporarily disconnected.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tu Casa Recording Studio is leaving Avenue B

Stanley Kubrick's Shoe Shine Boy

[Avenue C circa 1947]

On the occasion of his birthday yesterday, we posted a photo that filmmaker Stanley Kubrick took on the subway from 1946 for LOOK Magazine...

EVG Facebook friend Sharon shared the above photo...In 1947, Kubrick followed a 12-year-old kid named Mickey around for a LOOK pictorial on shoe shine boys... any guesses on what the cross street is for the above photo at Avenue C? (I don't know, so...)

The Museum of the City of New York has more photos and information about the series here.

Hockey clinic for kids Sundays in Tompkins Square Park

[NOT the old-time hockey taught in Tompkins Square Park]

EVG reader and East Village resident Brian Kubovcik shared this info ... he's a volunteer coach with NYC Street Hockey ... and they work with the Parks Deptartment and the New York Rangers to provide free Street Hockey Clinics to boys and girls ages 5-15.

"It's meant to get kids outside and active. We teach the basics of hockey on sneakers (not skates) and all equipment is provided. No prior hockey experience necessary. We're putting on the clinics in Tompkins Square Park (basketball court area at the corner of 10th Street and Avenue A) Sundays from 10 am - 12:30 until Aug. 25."

From the official website, where you can find registration info.

As a result of the continued success of the NYC Parks/NY Rangers Street Hockey Program, now in its third year, Parks will be offering free youth street hockey clinics for boys and girls aged 5-15 during the summer. The weekly scheduled clinics focus on introducing youth to the sport of hockey and teaching them the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle and eating a balanced diet. Sports instruction will focus on individual skills, team participation, and fundamentals of the game such as passing, shooting and stickhandling. All equipment is provided and no prior experience is necessary to participate.

Today at the Tompkins Square Park charging station

Photo by Bobby Williams

Garden party

Siouxsie and the Banshees with "Hong Kong Garden" from 1981

Happy birthday Stanley Kubrick

The great Stanley Kubrick was born on this date in 1928 in the Bronx.

Before his filmmaking career, he worked as a commercial photographer... he shot the NYC subways for LOOK Magazine in 1946...


[Museum of the City of New York]

You can find this photo and several others at the Museum of the City of New York blog.

Meanwhile, as for his films... In 1955, he borrowed $40,000 from an uncle and directed, wrote, edited and photographed "Killer's Kiss" — one of my favorites... (the images in the trailer show up at the 28-second mark...)



[H/T Dangerous Minds]

Tim Hortons 'temporarily closed for utility line maintenance'

That Tim Hortons-Cold Stone Creamery combo opened late last year on East Houston near Ludlow... As the photo via @fnytv shows, they are temporarily closed... perhaps a victim of the never-ending Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction...

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street discovers the summer vacation

Time to check in with a few friends who had the chance to travel this summer.

Recently Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street vacationed on Nantucket. We are unsure whether she’d ever been to the ocean before and given the calamity of her last water visit at Bantam Lake last summer we were concerned about how she’d react.



Turns out while she loves water she isn’t crazy about waves. But chasing her ball into the surf kept her busy and happy for hours and hours.



She also quickly acclimated to the natives and quite naturally substituted chasing seagulls and rabbits for her usual pigeon and squirrel obsessions in Tompkins Square Park.

More than anything we think she enjoyed being sans-leash with unfettered access to the great outdoors without the four flights of stairs she has to navigate at home.

On the next episode: Despite the strong performances by Al Pacino and John Cazale, Kita finds the lack of actual canines in "Dog Day Afternoon" rather disappointing.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The further adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The further (often truly) amazing adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Happy holidays from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street has her first ever annual checkup