Due to Circumstances Beyond our Control Nevada Smiths is temporarily closed. We are working to resolve the Situation and...
Posted by Nevada Smiths on Tuesday, September 15, 2015
"He is the purest example of a hippie ever seen in this city," said Mary Cantwell, the author of 'Manhattan, When I Young,' who met Mr. Purple in 1985. "He is an artifact of that era, living in a very unlikely time and place, namely present-day New York City."
Mr. Purple has been something of a fringe fixture ever since he moved to the city 30 years ago. His appearance and his moniker were striking even in a city known for its eclectic characters and wild sartorial tastes. During much of the 70's and early 80's, he dressed almost entirely in the royal hue: purple shirts, purple sweaters, purple pants. With his beard, gray hair, floppy green stocking cap, sunglasses and twinkling blue eyes, he looks like Santa Claus if Santa hit the skids and lost the belly.
He put the color away, he said, after the garden was destroyed.
"Purple went out with the garden," he said. "Adam Purple doesn't exist."
"Planet Fitness [offers] a $10 monthly membership fee that makes it accessible to everyone, which was very important to us." said S. Andrew Katz, a principal at the Prusik Group, which is a minority partner in the $1 billion-plus development and oversees the leasing of retail space. "There are gyms that charge $250 a month for membership, but those don't fit the community's needs.”
“She was someone who struggled,” said Harbour, who was in Toronto for the premiere of his film "Black Mass."
“She was in the shelter system. I was trying to help her out,” he said.
Situated in a five-story walk-up, the store is owned and run by Murray R. Silver, 65, who lives in an apartment above the business, which absorbed three other gravestone dealers, Forsyth, Weinreb & Gross.
Inside, the selection ranging from standard marble “toaster” shapes with the Star of David in relief (customary for men, while women usually get Shabbat candles) to massive granite Torahs rests on squares of tattered artificial green grass to capture the feel of a real cemetery. The oldest gravestone sample, hand carved by Mr. Silver’s late father, Samuel Silver, depicts a broken tree and a flying dove.
“You are now in the house of satisfied customers,” a sign proclaims. Mr. Silver inherited the business from his parents. His father died 20 years ago and now rests in a cemetery on Long Island under a modest family marker engraved “Silver.” His mother, Minnie, who is 95, became the first woman on the Lower East Side to run a monument store’s showroom. She would leave work early so she could put out milk and cake for her children arriving home from school.
CB3 Public Hearing — FY 2017 Budget Priorities
Wednesday September 16 at 6:30 pm — Community Board 3 Office, 59 E. Fourth St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery)
This is an opportunity for organizations and residents to tell the Community Board their budget priorities.
What parks need reconstruction? What programs need funding? Help us assess the needs of our community.
Every year the Community Board submits a list of capital and expense budget priorities to city agencies. This hearing is your opportunity to have input into these district budget priorities. Tell us how money should be spent in Community Board 3.
Organizations, groups, and individuals representing all segments of the community are encouraged to participate.
D'Ambrosi put a hen of the woods mushroom dish on the menu that DeRossi, who "always hated mushrooms," loved. That dish turned out to be vegan, and so from there DeRossi had the chef begin experimenting with other vegan dishes, offering them as specials at Bergen Hill. Two years later, they've pulled together a list of about 20 that will make up Avant Garden's vegan menu. Those include things like charred onion with chimichurri and seasoned breadcrumbs, and roasted carrots with orange, honey, pumpkin seeds and quinoa, as well as that hen of the woods dish.
“I don’t need the aggravation anymore, and this is aggravation,” he said, looking around at the clutter. “It kept me busy, but now I’m tired.”
He estimates that he has crammed 250,000 CDs and perhaps 50,000 more video and audiocassettes into the small space. Just to enter the store, at 130 First Avenue ... seemed to risk setting off a cascading avalanche of thousands of plastic cases.
“The store is so jammed, people are amazed by it, but then they see I got good stuff,” he said. “I can dig out anything I want. The thing is, I just don’t want to dig anymore.”
However, in the Times, he "reluctantly confirmed that his given name was Bill Kasper."
Previously on EV Grieve:
The Birdman of the East Village
You can read our Q-and-A with Auritt here.
Across the city, experienced cobblers are closing the doors of their small businesses as they see their rents rise, potential customers buying new shoes rather than repairing old ones, and a dearth of apprentices interested in learning their trade.
Most interestingly was what was going on in the backyard. There was a DJ, and lots of lights, but the noise was minimal. It took me a minute to piece it together, but all of the lights were coming from headphones that everyone was wearing — they literally set up a silent disco in their backyard.
I don't really want to pan these guys cause it's definitely progress from last year and I guess I appreciate them coming up with a creative way to keep the noise down (even if the thought process almost certainly was more about not having the cops called than thinking about their neighbors).
