RIP Alan Shenker aka Yossarian

[East Side Book Store, Saint Mark's Place 1972. Photo by Patrick Rosenkranz]

Several readers have passed along word that Alan Shenker, aka Yossarian/Yo, a legendary figure in the underground comics world in the late 1960s and beyond, died on Jan. 14. He was 67.

Among many other endeavors, he created illustrations and comics for the East Village Other, Gothic Blimp Works, The Rat, Kiss and the New York Ace.

He lived on St. Mark's Place the past 35 years.

There are features on his life here at The Comics Journal ... and at The Paris Review.

There is also a new Facebook page for him. Per the description:

A Page dedicated to the spirit of Alan Shenker/Yossarian: Son of Levittown, Revolutionary, Mordant Wit, Illustrator Par Excellence, Imbiber of Spirits, Flâneur, Haircutter, East Villager, Crank, Soul Man & Friend.

You can find an array of his artwork here at Babylon Falling.

[Via Babylon Journal]

From The Comics Journal yesterday:

His friends described his lifestyle as a “flaneur” or a “downtown habitué.” “He did what all New Yorkers do,” said [longtime friend] Maryann. “He complained about everything. He sat around drinking coffee at cafes. He talked to everyone. He was totally righteous and he never sold out.”

Woo-en Commission Report: Snow penis outbreak reaching epidemic proportions in the East Village

All sorts of reports coming in this morning about last night's light snowfall.

Per one reader:

Dicks.. dicks.. every...everywhere.... I can't...Hel...

Then the transmission broke off.

East 13th Street.

East Seventh Street

There are even McSorley's branded snow peepees.

East First Street

East Second Street. Where things just got...ugly.

There are more. But you get the idea.

At some point over the next few months of winter, all of us will entertain our worst fears and concerns. But I can also promise you this. Life will go on. We will prevail.

Otherwise, what a beautiful East Village morning...

...and noted on the EV Grieve Twitter account...

#EastVillage postcard morning twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…
— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 26, 2013

#EastVillage postcard morning II twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…
— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 26, 2013

Trench warfare in Tompkins Square Park

Photo today before the snow via Bobby Williams.

The wrath of Khan on East Fifth Street!

Sophie's in the light snow... on East Fifth Street... where it all began. Photo by Dave on 7th.

And is this snowfall part of Khan? And how many "Wrath of Khan" headlines will this spawn? (Aside from this one...)

Here is the Eyewitness News report on the 'No 7-Eleven' campaign

A Touch of greatness

Magazine with "Touch and Go" circa 1978.

We won't have Michael 'Bao' Huynh to blog about anymore

Via Eater, we learn that Michael 'Bao' Huynh is leaving town...

Per Gael Greene:

Serial restaurant dabbler and assassinator Michael “Bao” Huynh has given up on trying to make money after countless diehard efforts and is leaving tonight for Vietnam, the land of opportunity. Bao III, Obao, Mickey’s Burger, Bia, BaoBQ, Bar Bao, Pho Sure. Nothing really worked for Hunyh, at least not for long...

He left behind quite a trail in the East Village. Such as!

• Baoguette Cafe closed for a few hours back in September and never reopened...

• BaoBQ on First Avenue, which closed in August

• The infamous Barbao-DOB 111 whirlwind on St. Mark's Place back in 2010-11...

Then there was always the promise of something new... like the "Old School Style Philly" cheesesteak place called Mikey's Cheese Steak that never materialized at 23 Third Ave. ... or, better, Bao & Buny, the burger, fried chicken and waffles concept for 125 St. Mark's Place with former Playboy bunny Nicole Van Croft ...

And he probably had more fun with all this than we did.

Eyewitness News airing 'No 7-Eleven' segment today

LES VS 7-11.Story tonight on @eyewitnessnyc First at 4. @no7elevennyc @evgrieve @tsbagels

— Lisa Colagrossi (@LColagrossi7) January 25, 2013

And I imagine the story will be posted online WABC-7 at some point...

Previously.

Rolling out the barrel, or taps, at Zum Schneider

Zum Schneider is back open today after being closed for a few days for "renovation and mechanical repairs" ... that must include some new taps... spotted by Dave on 7th here on Avenue C and East Seventh Street...

Or maybe it's a new self-serve sidewalk bar...? Ha.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Outside the Stage yesterday morning on Second Avenue]

75-year-old woman critically injured after cab strikes her on East Sixth near Avenue C (Daily News)

More on St. Brigid's reopening (NY1)

The Cannon Co. restaurant supplier on the Bowery prepped for the luxury Karl Fischer condo afterlife (BoweryBoogie)

... and price-chopping on the condos across the Bowery (Curbed)

Bowery peep show circa 2013 (The Gog Log)

When New Yorkers walked across a frozen East River (Gothamist)

When a lot of NYC burned down (Ephemeral New York)

More discussion for the Pier 42 park (The Lo-Down)

On renovating the Main Branch of the NYPL (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Montauk gets its first tattoo parlor (Curbed Hamptons)

...and just 11 months to Christmas!

[Stuy Town this week via EVG reader Mike]

... and tonight at the Pyramid on Avenue A... via the EV Grieve inbox...

Celebrate the sixth installment of LAST UNICORN, a blacklight phantasy dance & performance night brought to you by life curators Jacquelyn Gallo & Rosalie Knox.

*DJ SETS (this month enjoy a hot Ménage à Mike dj pileup)

• Dj Dubious Luxury - Mike Doughty delivers large beats & twisted cut ups you wouldn’t expect but will enjoy! https://soundcloud.com/dubiousluxury

• Dj Mike Bill$ - straight up ninja bringing your favorite ‘heroes of the Obama generation’ to the dance floor

• Dj Nuke Iran - Mike C serves pure dance magic, we just can’t get enough

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES:

- Super Bad Brad - legendary NYC street performer, Brad Prowly, stops by to bless us with his voice from beyond



*PLUS+++
Go-Go Gonzo dancing by REVE; special visual projection experience; free blacklight manicures & $5 house vodka drinks until midnight!

$6/ FREE BEFORE MIDNIGHT - MUST say ‘Last Unicorn’ at the door

13 keys dates in the 165-year history of St. Brigid's, reopening on Sunday

[May 2012]

As we first noted on Jan. 14, St. Brigid's will reopen with an invite-only mass Sunday at 5 presided over by Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan. Nearly 11 years have passed since the last mass in the main church (there were services in the school basement next door until 2004).

This piece in the Times from 2006 provides a quick summation of the drama involving the near-demolition of the historic church ... and the work of the parishioners and neighbors who never gave up hope that they could save the church. (The Villager thoroughly covered this story through the years. Check out the paper's archives. And we've noted even the most mundane construction detail through the years here.)

Here then are a few key dates in the church's history:

1848 — Workers place the church's cornerstone

1858 — St. Brigid's School opens on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C

1861 — Church holds a Requiem Mass for the men of the 69th New York State Militia who had been killed during the Civil War

[1869]

[1880s]

1889 — Church finally consecrated

1890 — the first Greek Catholic Mass in New York City was celebrated in the basement by Rev. Alexander Dzubay

[1928]

[1935]

1954 — New St. Brigid's School opens on Avenue B and East Seventh Street, where it remains today

1962 — Church spires removed because of safety concerns

1988 — Church allows homeless advocates and protesters of the police action to mobilize under its roof during the Tompkins Square Park Riots

[EVG, circa 2008]

1992 — East wall begins separating from the building

2001 — Cardinal Edward M. Egan closes the church

2006 — Demolition begins; parishioners file suit against the Archdiocese, temporarily halting work

2008 — Anonymous "angel" donates $20 million to restore church

2013 — Church reopens

Sources: Wikipedia and Dayton in Manhattan. Oh, and Wikipedia

Photos via the NYPL Digital Gallery.

For further reading:
Dry Dock, shipyards, and St. Brigid's (EV Transitions)

Here's to the next 165 years...

[This morning]

Bob Arihood and Crow's omen at St. Brigid's

No one has chronicled the neighborhood better than Bob Arihood. Here is a repost from Neither More Nor Less dated July 28, 2006 and titled Crow's omen.

As men washed themselves of the filth of a night and day of demolishing the interior of St. Brigid's , a crow sat cawing and harried by small but agitated and persistant birds atop the Gaelic cross at the peak of the facade of the 1848 landmark church of " Mary of Gael ", St. Brigid , the mother church of the Irish immigrants of the middle 19th century .

I am not a soothsayer and thus can not say what the presence of a crow cawing on a cross at a time like this does presage . Is there some dark fate and certain final loss with this church that we must without choice come to know and if so, should we not protest such fate extremely ? Shall this landmark and icon ,our connection with our past , just perish ? Today , the demolishers punched a hole in a stained glass window for fresh air as they demolished the precious interior and then punched a hole in the back wall of the church to defecate the brutally demolished interior of the church into the lot behind the church .Tommorow all will return to court to decide finally whether this demolishing shall stop .

The community wants this church to be saved ...preserved . But it seems there are now powerful forces dead set against saving this church ; powerful forces , the archdiocese , the bishops and the Cardinal , it seems , want St Brigids reduced to ruble . I do not truly understand why . Some say offers to purchase the church at a fair market price and then return St. Brigid's to the community have been made . It is said that the Cardinal has said no to such offers ,thus , can it be that there is more than just the money value of St. Brigid's demolished that is of concern to the archdiocese . The civil courts and the Landmarks Preservation Committee so far seem to be powerless to save this church . Finally ,why has some one not sought in canon law a path to the good grace and aid of His Holiness the Pope and the mother Church when the community now needs them most ?

Find more of Bob's St. Brigid's-related posts here.

Hawk's omen at St. Brigid's

Perhaps as a follow-up to the previous post, Crow's omen ... a shot of the St. Brigid's cross this week by Bobby Williams...

Conspiracy theories: Who was the anonymous donor behind St. Brigid's $20 million donation?

Headlines from May 22, 2008 ...


On this date (or, online the day before!), we learned that an anonymous donor came to the rescue of St. Brigid's, which reopens Sunday, saving the historic building's grounds on Avenue B and East Eighth Street from life as a condo or dorm. (There was also talk in 2003-2004 that the Cabrini Center would move here from down on East Fifth Street, as The Villager reported.)

Per the Times: "The gift includes $10 million to restore the building, at 119 Avenue B; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community'; and $8 million to support the St. Brigid's School and other Catholic schools in need."

Great news. And fodder for conspiracy theorists. Matt Dillon! Bette Midler! The Villager mentioned Chuck Feeney, "an Irish-American philanthropist who has given about $400 million anonymously through The Atlantic Philanthropies, which he endowed."

And now, Dave on 7th shares his conspiracy theory:

Ever since St Brigid's was saved, I've wondered why, after going to literally the last hour in trying to demolish the church and sell off its incredibly valuable real estate, the Archdiocese would suddenly accept the offer of an anonymous donor and essentially rebuild the whole church from scratch.

My theory is that the "donor" is in fact the Archdiocese itself, and they needed to remain anonymous because they had just closed like four parishes in the neighborhood.

Interestingly, the parish that survived the cuts was St Emeric, which is housed in a nondescript church located on a dead-end street behind a power plant.

At some point a year or two ago, I saw flyers on Avenue C announcing that the Cardinal would be holding a mass at St Emeric. That's a BIG deal for a little church in a nondescript building behind a power plant.

Then came the announcement that St Emeric would "merge" with St Brigid's, and that the parish priest would come from St Emeric. That clinched it for me.

This was a deal between St Emeric and the Cardinal (who, by the way, is going to lead the first mass in the new church, again a very BIG deal) to rebuild the church and turn it over to whatever order St Emeric's is. And it all had to remain anonymous and unassociated with the Archdiocese or else the other parishes that were closed, in possession of perfectly good structures would be up in arms. This way it had nothing to do with them, they were at the mercy of a wealthy donor.

In the end, I'm just glad the building was saved, but that's how I think it all happened.

What do you think? I'm still going with Matt Dillon as the donor ... all those "Wild Things" residuals ...

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street questions the popularity of Yorkies named Max in the East Village; supports 'No 7-11'

Per Kita's owner: "Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street was mystified by the popularity of Yorkies named Max in the neighborhood (she’s never met a single one) but she is solidly in support of the No 7-11 movement."

On the next episode: Kita ponders starting a bike-share program for canines

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

[UPDATED] Il Bagatto turns back the clock as its Second Street space hits the market

An EVG reader and fan of Il Bagatto passed along this flyer ... the Italian Trattoria on East Second Street started a "throw back Thursdays" promotion last night where prices are the same as 1997...

Meanwhile, a listing for the Il Bagatto space (and that of its sister cafe next door, Il Posto Accanto) at 190-192 E. Second St. near Avenue B, showed up on the RKF site on Tuesday...

Per the listing, possession of the space is "immediate." No word just yet on the future plans for Il Bagatto, which opened here 1995.

Updated 4:30
Julio checked in, and said that they are still negotiating with the landlord — so this is NOT a done deal...

Olde Good things opening on the new Bowery

On Wednesday night, we spotted this outside 302 Bowery, which most recently served as a boutique for designer Patricia Field...

The storefront had been for rent since last March. Asking price: $30,000. There is now a new tenant...

It will be another location of Olde Good Things, which boasts having "one of the largest inventories of unique and antique architectural items." There are currently Olde Good shops on the Upper West Side, Union Square as well as in Chelsea.

Joanne Klein, who had been looking for a tenant here, confirmed the news. "Their style works well with the neighborhood too," she said.

Last May, Field moved to her newly renovated showroom space at 306 Bowery/298 Elizabeth.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More details on renting the Patricia Field boutique space on the Bowery

Winter Friday Flashback: On East Second Street, a sink hole and an Icicle Audi

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Jan. 23, 2011...

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Thanks to RyanAvenueA for this shot... of a large hole in the middle of Second Street near Second Avenue...

Come spring, we'll move the cars, throw around some deck chairs, and open a Shake Shack here.

Oh, and here's a closer look at the new icicle Audi model.

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Postscript. The Icicle Audi, of course, went on to international acclaim. From Jan. 25...

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H/t to esquared™ for reminding me about this anniversary.

This East Village crime story includes a Jimmy Choo boots-loving shoplifter who bites people

OK then. Here's a humdinger of a crime report via Serena Solomon at DNAinfo today:

Melissa Scott, 28, was caught red-handed Sunday for allegedly stealing a pair of Jimmy Choo boots from Cadillac's Castle at 333 E. Ninth St. — after biting both a store employee and a police officer who tried to restrain her, according to the clothing store's owners and cops.

The story includes a scuffle on East Ninth Street and a foot chase on St. Mark's Place, where Scott reportedly bit the officer.

During the biting attack on East Ninth Street ("her jaw clenched so tight a neighboring store owner had trouble prying her off"), people watching reportedly "just stood around and did nothing."

Here's the trailer for the new Coen Brothers movie, filmed in part in the East Village

As you may recall, the Coen Brothers shot parts of their next movie, "Inside Llyewn Davis," around the neighborhood last February and March. (See all of our posts and photos here.)

[Last February!]

East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue was dressed up to recreate the Greenwich Village of the 1960s.

The movie follows a protagonist loosely based on singer Dave Van Ronk, a friend of Bob Dylan’s. Oscar Isaac stars as the title character while Justin Timberlake co-stars as another folk musician. Carey Mulligan and John Goodman are also in the film.

As Slate noted today, the film doesn't have a release date yet.

Thanks to @RTSNYC for the tip.

[Updated] Behold the bell of St. Brigid's

Wow. EVG regular Salim just shared this... This morning, workers from a bell-restoration firm were putting a 3,000 pound, 150-year-old bell back in place at St Brigid's on Avenue B and East Eighth Street.

Wow.

Per Salim: "Everyone — cars, pedestrians, cyclists — was stopping to look at the bell. It was remarkably bright and beautiful, and the bell restorers had a lot of pride as they described it... forged in 1858, I think."

After a lengthy restoration, St. Brigid's is set to reopen on Sunday, as we first reported. And this might just do away with those fake "bells" that we've been hearing...

Updated 1-25

Salim and some other readers noted that the bell is actually on display now outside the church...

Hopefully people won't decide to do anything stupid here... it's pretty much right there in shenanigans way...

Why it's very possible that you own a Yorkie named Max in the East Village

From the EV Grieve inbox...

People love their dogs and consider them members of their family, and in New York City, a city with such a high number of singles, dogs may be their only family. Recognizing the enthusiasm people have for their pets, WNYC’s Data News team has created DOGS OF NYC, an interactive map that illustrates the popularity of names and breeds depending on neighborhood.

DOGS OF NYC includes:
• Doggy Census: Who lives where? Who knew Yorkies were so popular in Chelsea?
• Most popular boy and girl names (and other top 10 lists) Max and Bella reign supreme in 2012.
• Match the Breed with the Name” game, and more!
• Make your own t-shirt: a unique gift for the dog lover this upcoming Valentine’s Day!

Some more interesting tidbits:
• Princess is big in the Bronx, but Bronx — the name — is not nearly as popular as Brooklyn.
• The most popular female dog name is Bella, and Max is the most popular male dog name.
• There are 26 dogs in NYC named Pepsi, but none named Coke or Coca-Cola.
• There are 14 dogs named Kitty and 31 named Tigger.

You can read the article and find interactive stuff here. (The top image here is interactive.)

In total, there 5,000 Yorkies are licensed in the city, and more than 4,700 Shih Tzus. As for the East Village... a closer look at the stats shows that — surprise! — Yorkies are the most popular breed ... with Max being the most popular name. Followed by Bailey and, um, Coco. Keep in mind that these are only for licensed dogs, which only number 20 percent of all canines in the city.

From the article: the Health Department estimates that only one in five dogs are licensed. And now a cut-and-paste job from the piece:

It’s against the law to own a dog in the city and not get it licensed. The Health Department says licensing helps reunite lost dogs with their owners, and reminds owners to keep up with vaccinations for their best friend. The proceeds from registration fees support the operation of animal shelters in the city. The penalty for getting caught by a police officer or park official with an unlicensed dog is a summons and $200.

An unscientific survey of dog owners in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan's East Village on a Thursday afternoon reveals most of them are oblivious to the rule, the reasons for getting a license, and the penalty for going without one.

“Laziness, mainly laziness,” said one owner of an unlicensed dog, explaining why he hadn’t registered his one-and-a-half-year-old Affenpinscher with the city. The owner asked that he remain nameless for fear of incriminating his dog, to which he gave the alias “Bodean.”

You should really go get Max licensed.