The LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival continues today

[The 6BC Botanical Garden]

The second annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival in the Gardens continues today in a community garden near you... Here's a detailed schedule (PDF).

One programming note: Jim Power broke his right hand last week when he was thrown from his scooter after hitting a pothole on East Ninth Street and Avenue A ... Regardless, he wanted people to know that his free mosaic workshop today from 2-4 will go on as scheduled at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden. "So everyone who would like to be introduced to the art of mosaics please come on down for a wonderful afternoon," he said.

At the 10th Annual FAB! Festival

FABnyc presented the 10th Annual FAB! Festival yesterday afternoon on East Fourth Street ... our friend editrrix was there and shared these photos... (Find more of her work here)

The Halal Guys are apparently opening their first restaurant in the East Village

Food-cart favorites The Halal Guys expanded to the East Village on Sept. 19 with a cart on the northwest corner of East 14th Street and Second Avenue...

Now, as a few readers noted, the former deli at 307 E. 14th St. (immediately adjacent to the new cart) has new signage noting a Halal Guys restaurant ...We don't have any further details at the moment...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Halal Guys are now open on East 14th Street and 2nd Avenue

This morning in lines for German beer

Oktoberfest begins today at Zum Schneider on Avenue C and East Seventh Street... and EVG reader John noted a 30-person line at 9:41 a.m. ...



Doors open at 11. First keg is tapped at noon. (And what is German for Woo?)

Noted

East 10th Street and Avenue A this morning. Hurry, this offer won't last...

Noted

@evgrieve someone took a poop in front of Chase at Astor Place this morning & it was certainly human pic.twitter.com/Zw9PNmtmSg

— Bomarr Blog (@bomarrblog) September 28, 2013

Officials confirmed that this is not part of the Astor Place reconstruction.

10th Annual FAB! Festival takes over East 4th Street today

[Photo by Whitney Browne via the FAB website]

From the EVG inbox...

FABnyc will present the 10th Annual FAB! Festival today from 1-5 pm on East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. This one-day-only arts explosion features FREE performances and exhibits for all ages. Attendees can sample tasty bites from local food vendors while enjoying dance, theater, and music by artists from across the Lower East Side (and beyond!). All performances will take place across numerous indoor and outdoor stages and sites on East 4th Street. Full lineup here

Deceptive perceiving

The Buzzcocks from 1977 with "I Don't Mind."

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Shopping on Broadway via Bobby Williams]

Boutique priced out of the LES finds cheaper digs on Madison Avenue (DNAinfo)

Amy talks about her brief marriage to LES Jewels (The Villager)

Video recap of Portals 10-12 (GammaBlog)

Are these the 10 best restaurants on the LES? (Fork in the Road)

Aren't there enough Chinatown bus services? (The Lo-Down)

Yay? Bloomberg threatens to stop holding news conferences (The Wall Street Journal)

Remembering the Ludlow Street Cafe (Flaming Pablum)

History of The Village Voice (Off the Grid)

Manganaro's Hero Boy is saying put (The Commercial Observer)

RIP the original Blarney Stone (Grade "A" Fancy)

An open letter to The DL from LES Dwellers (BoweryBoogie)

Appreciating the Mayfair Barber Shop (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Williams Burroughs sings! (Dangerous Minds)

... and a reader notes that workers are hoisting some solar panels or something to buildings atop East 12th Street between A and B this morning... You always take pictures of cranes...


[Source: men installing solar panels with crane]

Tonight: LUNGS Harvest Fest Opening Night Party

From the EVG inbox...

Please come to the opening night celebration of the Second Annual LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) Harvest Arts Festival tonight at LaPlaza Cultural at East Ninth Street and Avenue C. Come and bring your friends, drink and dance and have fun with us.

The schedule for Friday is:

5-6:30 For kids, with Circus Amok

6:30 Tompkins Square drummers

7 Welcome remarks featuring Rosie Mendez, Scott Stringer and Brian
Cavanagh

MUSIC
7:30 to 8:15 Eric and Friends

8:15 Pierre Monney

9:00 Mike Cobb & the Crevulators

Find more details about LUNGS here.

An updated look at the all-new Astor Place

[EVG file photo]

The reconstruction around Cooper Square and Astor Place is upon us... Yesterday, officials shipped out the, uh, official news release about the project (which we didn't receive!*) ... and Curbed has the details ... as well as some slightly updated images  ...


[New trees help block out Chase branch]

The plan remains the same ... which includes enlarging Cooper Park, streamlining the street grid and creating new permanent pedestrian plazas. Not to mention adding 60 additional trees. Curbed notes that the work will cost $16 million. The work will start at East Fourth Street, "where new drainage catch basins, curbs and sidewalks are being constructed."

And the project will work its way north over the next two years.

Meanwhile, there hasn't been any official word about what will happen to Jim Power's mosaics that adorn Astor Place.

Per Serena Soloman at DNAinfo yesterday:

"They should not be removed," said Power, who plans to put up signs saying the mosaics are in danger.

"We are being pushed around by this so-called redesign. This is our neighborhood," he said.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

* Our fax machine has been out of paper since 1999.

Headless giraffe makes another baffling appearance around 5th and B

As we understand it, there have been numerous recent sightings of this headless stuffed giraffe around the vicinity of East Fifth Street and Avenue B... the creature, who desperately needs a nickname, a branding campaign and more social media exposure (for starters, at the least), was spotted last night outside Bloom 62, Ben Shaoul's nursing home-turned upscale rental.

The headless stuffed giraffe likely represents the duality of man, though, as of our press time, that hadn't been confirmed.

[Thanks to @melissa_dilger for the photo]