Free trees for the holidays!

Well, people leaving town for the holidays (perhaps!) continue to toss their trees. (Maybe MulchFest should move up their date from January?) The tossed trees seem to be everywhere...



So perhaps if you've been holding off on buying a tree this holiday season, then you can pick one up for free. (Or if you want a second tree for the home.) Or if you want a new tree, then you can check out Stacie Joy's round-up of neighborhood stands here.

Photos today by Derek Berg

At the 9th Precinct's annual holiday event for kids

The 9th Precinct hosted its annual children's holiday party yesterday on East Fifth Street ... Derek Berg stopped by to check in on the present action...









A lot of happy faces (though not everyone was happy!).

And at first glance, we thought Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer might be leading the crowd in xmas carols ... nope – she was just thanking the 9th Precinct...

A moment on East Houston

Via our friends at In Alphabet City...

A happy ending for this discarded Christmas/holiday tree

A discarded tree sits rejected on East Fifth Street last evening. However! EVG correspondent Derek Berg, who took this photo, reports that a neighbor adopted the tree and brought it in for his/her own apartment.

Also, this tree tried to escape from Saifee Hardware on First Avenue ...

Have a holly, jolly 9th Precinct Christmas today

[Photo via @edenbrower]

The 9th Precinct is hosting its annual children's holiday party today on East Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. As the flyer shows, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there. Not sure about Officer Tubbs. The festivities last from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, the 9th Precinct has been getting into the holiday spirit as well inside the station house ...

#TisTheSeason2015 for getting into the #holidayspirit at the @NYPD9Pct pic.twitter.com/QJHvprlWUi

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) December 10, 2015

Die another day

I've lost track of Gary Numan's musical output in recent years. The English singer-songwriter continues to be productive releasing new material ... and yesterday's announcement that he will be playing three shows at the Gramercy Theater in May prompted me to revisit the above track — "I Die: You Die" — from 1980.

A sign of vandalism on East 2nd Street

This morning, an EVG reader found that her car and at least two others had been vandalized on East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Someone used a staple gun to attach tarot cards to the car tires. The reader, who said that the tires will need to be replaced, filed a police report.

EV Grieve Etc.: Remembering Adam Roth; Converting Streit's to condos

[Off to Grey Gardens! Photo by Derek Berg]

RIP Adam Roth (Daily News ... Billboard)

Streit’s matzo factory headed toward condo conversion (The Real Deal)

Extell unveils affordable housing building on the LES (DNAinfo)

TeaNY has closed on Rivington (BoweryBoogie)

Catching up with Steve Cannon (The Villager)

NYCHA is underprepared for emergencies: Scott Stringer (Capital New York)

Reactions to de Blasio’s zoning proposals (City & State ... Gothamist)

ACME changing concepts on Great Jones (Grub Street)

42-year-old Soho health food restaurant Spring Street Natural is on the move (Eater)

Essex Crossing Site 6 update (The Lo-Down)

A few of the NYC institutions that closed this year (The Commercial Observer)

When the Cockettes came to NYC in 1971 (Dangerous Minds)

The shadows of December (Gog in NYC)

Holiday gift idea: Membership to the Anthology Film Archives (AFA site)

HiFi owner Mike Stutz interviews EVG on this podcast ... part of Live at Fi — Transmissions From The Hifi Bar in NYC series (iTunes)

... and free pet photos with Santa Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Police Service Area #4 on East Eight Street and Avenue C... (no pub crawl though...)

Q-and-A with East Village artist James Romberger

James Romberger is an artist-cartoonist known for his depictions of the neighborhood's streetscapes. In the mid-1980s, he was co-founder of the East Village installation gallery Ground Zero. His work has been shown in galleries around the city, and is in the public collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.

Romberger's latest drawings — his first solo show of new pastel drawings since 2002 — are currently exhibiting at the Dorian Grey Gallery on East Ninth Street.

Per Dorian Grey, the exhibition "focuses primarily on witty, closely observed still lives and scenes from the vicinity of his birthplace on Long Island's North Fork.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently spoke with Romberger about his work.



The East Village and Lower East Side factor heavily into your work over the years. Why did you choose to feature your surroundings in your cartoon and pastel work?

Like many artists, I tend to draw what is around me because knowing it so well; I can invest the work with believable detail. But I like to draw different locales. For instance, my comic Post York is about NYC after the ice caps melt and the city floods, while my other recent graphic novel done with my partner Marguerite Van Cook, The Late Child and Other Animals, is about her growing up in England and France. I’ve been to those places, so I’m able to draw them convincingly.

How have the changes in the neighborhood over the years you’ve lived here affected your work? How do you feel about the changes?

It is a little odd for me to try to draw locally because it is so cleaned up. I am not nostalgic for slums, poverty, and drug-dealing, and I realize NYC is always changing, but I do miss some of the multicultural character of the neighborhood that has been lost, and many of the wealthier people moving in now are not interested in culture.

The city doesn’t support arts other than sanctioned forms — street art is obliterated, dancing isn’t allowed, etc. Small businesses are not supported, either. Real estate greed is what runs NYC.





Why did you decide to focus on the North Fork/Greenport, Long Island area for your latest exhibit, and do you envision a return to East Village/LES-based work?

For most of the past decade, I had been doing more comics than gallery-oriented pastel drawings. But I spent the summer staying at a friend’s house out on Long Island and drawing what was around me was a good way for me to get back into doing that sort of work.

The work isn’t entirely without social relevance —interestingly, like NYC, Greenport also largely functions by the exploitation of undocumented workers and I showed that. However, there are some new East Village drawings at Dorian Grey and I am drawing more NYC scenes now.

What’s next for you, work-wise?

I am working on making Post York a full book, and Marguerite Van Cook and I and our son Clockwork Cros are doing a show together called “The Nuclear Family” at the HOWL! Happening Gallery on East First Street opening April 6, 2016.

-----

The Dust pastels show runs through Jan. 3 at Dorian Grey Gallery, 437 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.



All photos by Stacie Joy

Family looking for information about Peter Schedler

Several EVG readers have spotted these flyers in locations on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... with several posted outside No. 160.

The family of Peter Schedler is looking for information about his whereabouts last Friday night or Saturday morning. (Peter's brother Spencer, who wrote the note, gave his OK for us to repost the flyer).

The note reads:

"I am looking for any information regarding my brother Peter... and his activities in the building last Friday night and Saturday morning. If you saw him, heard from him, or heard anything that evening, it would be an extreme comfort to know. There is no criminal investigation, and we are not looking for anyone to blame. Absolutely no authorities will be involved. As I am unable to speak with him, I just want to know any details that you may have to help fill me and my family on his whereabouts that night.

Even if you think it was insignificant but you heard or noticed something, please contact me. It would be greatly appreciated and help our family who dearly loves him. Thank you for your help."

Spencer's email address is raised3rd@gmail.com.

Peter, who had worked as a senior executive for Live Nation, Warner Music Group and and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, among others, was found dead on Saturday morning. He was 39. His obituary is published here.

"Peter will be remembered for being passionate about whatever he set his mind to and his big ideas. There was very little that he did not hold a strong opinion on. He certainly lived his life to the fullest during his 39 years, with a wide network of friends from all walks of life. His outgoing, loyal and friendly personality will be immensely missed."

[Updated] DOH temporarily closes Little Poland on 2nd Avenue

The DOH has temporarily closed Second Avenue stalwart Little Poland, one of our favorite places to eat.

An inspection on Tuesday yielded 66 violation points, including for "Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations." They've always had excellent scores in the past.

Anyway, when they reopen here at 200 Second Ave. between East 12th Street and East 13th Street, we might finally try the pancake special that the diner has been offering since earlier in the fall...



Updated 12:46

They will reopen at 3 this afternoon...

Reader report: Gas main replacement brings new wildlife to East Seventh Street

A resident on East Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D shares the following:

East 7th Street between Avenue C and D has been graced with multiple weeks of gas main replacement, causing the area's typical wildlife, frisky rats, to find alternate habitat. You'll notice in this photo, the planter's dirt has been covered in Belgian block and chicken wire to prevent the erstwhile rodents from nesting in them.

Well, the absence of our rats has brought another form of wildlife to 7th Street. Peeking from between the planters is a frightened little opossum.



311 has uninterestingly responded that opossums are the "property owner's problem."

We hope the little guy hasn't been poisoned by the block's copious rat bait stations...

The new Astor Place CVS actually opens... TODAY

Well, after faking us out once... the CVS at 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star opens today. (The sign on the door originally said Sunday, Dec. 13, which meant that we got all dressed up for nothing — except church, of course.)

As noted previously and previously, CVS will eventually be joined by three more ground-level businesses — Bluestone Lane Coffee, Chop’t and Flywheel Sports.

Meantime, see you in the Beauty section!

Previously on EV Grieve:
You can finally shop at 51 Astor Place!

BREAKING: CVS is the 1st retail tenant for the Death Star! (42 comments)

1st sign of the incoming CVS at 51 Astor Place

CVS has teamed up with Watson, IBM’s supercomputer

3 new retail tenants for 51 Astor Place: Bluestone Lane Coffee, Chop’t and Flywheel Sports

At It's a Wonderful Life!: A benefit for Rev. Jen Junior (the greatest dog actress of all time)

[Bad Santa]

Last night at Cake Shop on Ludlow Street, Rev. Jen put on a benefit to help pay the medical bills for her ailing dog, Rev. Jen Junior. (Anything leftover was to go to Waggytail Rescue.)

So Rev. Jen assembled a group of musicians, comedians, performers — and more — for the benefit. Photographer Walter Wlodarczyk, a friend of EV Grieve (AFOEVG), was there and shared these photos from the evening...


[John S. Hall]


[Angry Bob]


[Even Twice]


[Rev. Jen Junior]


[Master Lee]


[Dusty Santamaria]


[Janeane Garofalo]


[Johnny Bizarre]






[Rev. Jen Junior]

'The Shell-Shocked Nut' returns to La MaMa

Words and photos by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

For the second year, I had a chance to get a sneak peek at the East Village Dance Project’s annual performance of "The Shell-Shocked Nut" (an alternative take on "The Nutcracker") at La MaMa.









Conceived and directed by Martha Tornay, and co-directed by Victoria Roberts-Wierzbowski, the all-ages production opens tonight and runs through Sunday, Dec. 20. The story features local spots like Tompkins Square Park, community gardens, and Economy Candy, and has bad guys like an unnamed real-estate developer. There’s even a live rock band during the CBGB’s ghost portion of the performance.









The East Village Dance Project, located at 55 Avenue C , offers classes to all, regardless of income, and has a scholarship program named after Charlotte Ruby Cantor, a young student of Martha’s who died at an early age in 1999. Her family developed the scholarship to support local young people whose families cannot afford the expense of dance classes.

Tickets — which help support the scholarship fund, and are subject to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit status — and additional information can be found here.

The Force is strong, etc., etc., with this Dark Side poster campaign

By now, you've likely seen these Dark Side posters plastered just about everywhere around the neighborhood (and elsewhere). As far as we can tell, they arrived Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. (About the the time that @DarkSide_NYC started following us — and vice versa.)

Here are some other samplings of the Dark Side...

#DARKSIDENYC #BRUNCH pic.twitter.com/dp99igpTWM

— Dark Side NYC (@DarkSide_NYC) December 17, 2015

#DARKSIDENYC pic.twitter.com/Fm9KxBRMOy

— Dark Side NYC (@DarkSide_NYC) December 17, 2015

#DARKSIDENYC pic.twitter.com/LoFk3cuMoG

— Dark Side NYC (@DarkSide_NYC) December 16, 2015

Spotted- 2nd Ave & 9th St East Village, NYC. #darksidenyc #streetartnyc @evgrieve #starbucks pic.twitter.com/MiT1Ten2Z8

— Ian Archbold (@Iandarchbold) December 16, 2015

...and so on...

Nicole Levy at DNAinfo checked in with a story on the Dark Side... an excerpt:

A campaign calling itself Dark Side NYC — launching just as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" opens in local theaters — is taking aim at expensive coffee, crowded subway stations, juice cleanses, drunken brunches, online dating and other stressors of New York City life with posters such as the one above and social media accounts featuring a Death Star avatar.

"We seek to bring balance to New York," said the enigmatic figures behind the campaign in an email to DNAinfo. "And with the Force fresh on everyone's minds, we feel it prudent to reveal how New York City truly is the Empire State," they added, referring to the oppressive Galactic Empire of George Lucas' cinematic sci-fi saga.

As any true Star Wars fan knows, the posters take their inspiration from the wisdom of Jedi master Yoda: "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering," he tells Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," admonishing him to steer clear of the path taken by his father, the evil Darth Vader.

Oh. Well, so much for our theory that this campaign was a tribute to John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band's hit song "On the Dark Side" from "Eddie & the Cruisers."