The new operators are BSE Global and the Bowery Presents. Here's a recap of what they've done these past months, per a news release:
The renovations at Webster Hall aimed to preserve the iconic features of the venue, while modernizing it to meet today’s entertainment standards and enhance the guest experience. The Lounge (formerly The Marlin Room) has been revamped to serve as a bar and meeting spot for ticketholders both before and after shows in the Grand Ballroom.
Design details of The Lounge include elegant gold stenciling on the walls that pays homage to the original historic design, and fluted glass along the bar that mimics the venue’s former windows.
In the Grand Ballroom, the original stage remains, while acoustics were enhanced to create an optimal live event experience. Fans and artists returning to Webster Hall will notice other new features such as central air conditioning, expanded restrooms, additional stairwells for smoother entry and exit, and the venue’s first-ever elevator that will serve guests with disabilities and speed up each show’s load-in and load-out process.
Behind the scenes, an artist compound was built with upgraded amenities to provide direct access to the Ballroom stage, creating a more comfortable and inviting environment for performers and their management. The venue’s basement level, formerly known as The Studio at Webster Hall, will also return, with more details to be announced at a later date.
A bat was making the rounds early this evening by the Hare Krishna Tree in Tompkins Square Park... Goggla shared these photos... she believe it's an Eastern Red Bat...
Once again on this Good Friday, parishioners from several churches in the neighborhood — Most Holy Redeemer, Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Mary's Grand — took part in the Stations of the Cross.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos from along Third Street...
... and a look inside the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... where the procession wound up...
If you're in the vicinity of the north side of Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ... EVG reader Sonya shares this can-flower art that's up for grabs ...
NYC rents hit record high (Gothamist) ... Meanwhile, operating costs for rent-stabilized apartment buildings increased 5.5 percent from March 2018 to March 2019, a new Rent Guidelines Board report claims (Curbed)
A 36-year-old man committed suicide by jumping in front of an L train at the First Avenue station on Monday evening (Town & Village)
At their Easter worship celebrations on Sunday, the Middle Collegiate Church, 112 Second Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, will feature selections from “Jesus Christ Superstar” at 9:30 and 11:45 am. (Official site)
Over at the Classic Stage Company on 13th Street, Marc Blitzstein's historic 1937 fervently pro-labor "play in music" "The Cradle Will Rock" continues through May 19 (Official site)
See "2001: A Space Odyssey" in the big auditorium this weekend at the Village East (Official site)
Some history of St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church on 12th Street, now a monument in front of an NYU dorm (Ephemeral New York)
How New York's raw gay history ended up in a box (Popula)
At Essex Crossing, 180 Broome St. has reached its full height of 26 stories (The Lo-Down)
The story of how this Keith Haring mural was saved from the LES... and now on display in Red Hook (Artsy)
Diversions: When the Psychedelic Furs were "one of the coolest, most underground groups around" (Dangerous Minds ... and I recall that frontman Richard Butler once lived on St. Mark's Place?)
St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery is holding its 18th annual Good Friday Blues service today from noon to 3 p.m.
Here's just a partial list of the featured performers:
• Stanley Banks, Grammy award-winning bassist.
• Art Barron, jazz trombonist, formerly of the Duke Ellington band, who has performed with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Tony Bennett.
• Bernice Brooks, drummer, who has shared the stage with Tito Puente, Patti Labella and other Jazz and R&B stars.
• Bobby Harden, acclaimed soul and blues musician and lead singer of the original Blues Brothers Band.
• Ayodele Maakheru, guitarist and performer in Broadway orchestras, including "Bring in da Noise/Bring in da Funk," "The Full Monty" and "The Wiz."
More info is at this link. Watch a Good Friday Blues service from 2015 here.
The exhibition explores David’s early work as a photographer in New York in the mid 70’s and early 80’s.
The show begins with David’s most famous work, which documents the New York punk scene centered around the infamous CBGB’s. The exhibition then expands out beyond the Lower East Side and onto the streets of New York. David’s street photographs–many of which have never been exhibited before – offer a beautiful and poignant slice of New York life in the 1970s. Working in black and white the artist’s compositional instincts transform the ordinary into the exceptional.
In a multimedia installation David talks us through his most iconic work which captures the emergence of the Punk scene in the Lower East Side. The audio commentary gives the viewer a unique insight into the photographs and the cast of characters that created this enduring and highly influential culture moment.
The show continues with multimedia displays of street photography along with larger format wheatpaste murals and installation works along with prints on paper.
The opening reception is tonight from 6-9 at the Great Frog, 72 Orchard St. between Broome and Grand. After tonight, you can check out the exhibit from noon to 8 p.m Tuesday through Sunday until May 9. Upcoming shows at the 72 Gallery space include Nightclubbing duo Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers.
"Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream," the 2016 documentary by East Village-based filmmaker Michael Levine, is out this week on DVD ... in addition, nearly two dozen PBS affiliate stations around the country, including New York’s flagship WNET, are screening "Streit's" throughout the rest of April and the beginning of May to coincide with Passover. (Details below.)
The documentary, which enjoyed a three-week run at the Film Forum in 2016, follows the last family-owned matzo bakery in America during their final year in their factory on Rivington Street. The factory moved out of the Lower East Side in 2015 after 90 years in that location.
The family sold its original factory to Cogswell Realty in January 2015 for a reported $30.5 million. A pricy glass box is now in its place on Rivington and Suffolk.
[Image by Leo London/Flickr]
Levine talked to me about the DVD release and his continued relationship with the Streit family.
What's your reaction to the DVD coming out at long last combined with the PBS screenings?
Well, it's very exciting, of course, and overwhelming, too.
When I first began work on this film at the start of 2013, I had no idea where it would end up. I had big hopes for it, because I believed then, as I do now, that the stories of the Streit family and staff, and their connections to the Lower East Side community and immigrant history, were ones that needed to be heard. And when the Streit family ended up, during the film's production, making the extraordinarily difficult but sadly necessary decision to leave the neighborhood after a full century, the story of course took on an additional, unexpected dimension.
But, as a documentary filmmaker, you never know if your project will see the light of day, which is in large part to say that you never know if the story you personally find so important will resonate with others the same way.
The fact that the film has ended up getting so much exposure, from the festival circuit, to theatrical, and now to screening on PBS, means to me that it has resonated with people, which as someone who cares strongly about this neighborhood and deeply respects the way Streit's has run their business for 100 years, means a lot.
And the DVD coming out is exciting, too. We had to cut the film down a bit to fit time slot constraints for PBS, so the DVD offers a way of being able to share the full 83-minute version that ran in theaters. Plus, we were able to include bonus features, like 18 minutes of film dating back to the 1940s that we found in the closet at the old Streit's factory on Rivington Street — just amazing stuff from a historical/cultural perspective that would likely never be seen otherwise.
It's also great getting emails, as we have, from younger people who want to buy the DVD for their grandparents because they know they grew up with Streit's, or from grandparents who want to buy it for their grandkids to help pass on that legacy. It's been fulfilling to see people connecting with a story that means a lot to me.
Are you still in contact with any of the family members? Do you still feel a connection to them?
Absolutely! There was never any thought that we'd lose touch once they left the neighborhood.
First, they still love the Lower East Side — it just got to a point where, because of a combination of overseas competition from non-union producers, plus the failure of NYC to offer them any incentives to stay, they were left with the option of sticking around a few more years and likely going out of business, or finding a way to keep the company going elsewhere.
The fact that they decided to relocate within commuting distance for most of their long-time employees speaks to the ethic of loyalty that drew me to their story in the first place.
In my mind, the loss of their presence in the neighborhood is a tremendous one, but I know they still feel a connection to the neighborhood, and I still feel a connection to them, and to all the workers there.
Their location on Rivington Street was iconic, that's for sure, but it's the people who have run the business and who work there, and their humanity and ethics that make their story extraordinary, and all of that has traveled with them up to Rockland County, N.Y., where their factory is operating now. I've been to the new factory a few times, and the machinery may be newer, but there are a lot of familiar faces, which is great to see.
Have you seen the almost-completed condoplex that took the place of Streit's?
To be honest, I've seen pictures of it, and caught glimpses of it from a distance, but I haven't been able to bring myself to actually walk on that block since the factory was demolished. I'm sure at some point I will, but I'm just not there yet.
And honestly, one of the things I fear most about it is something that I've experienced passing by any number of locations where iconic buildings or businesses have disappeared, which isn't a sense of loss — that you can feel from the comfort of home — it's the lack of a feeling of loss, or a feeling of anything for that matter, because what has replaced it bears no resemblance to what was there before.
It's not that you ever forget a place like Streit's — I can conjure up the feeling of walking through that building, the sounds of the old machinery, the smell of fresh matzo baking, anytime I like. It's that standing in the place where it was does nothing to remind you of any of those things because all markers of its existence have been erased.
In some way, maybe it's for the best, at least psychologically, because so many of the places that meant something to me in this neighborhood have disappeared, if I had experience the true weight of their loss every time I passed by their former location, I don't think I'd make it down the street!
But when it comes down to it, honestly I think it's dangerous in an insidious way, because it can lead to forgetting how much we have lost and how much we have to lose if we don't take action to keep these kinds of places around. It's one of the reasons I'm so thankful to have been able to shoot this film when I did — so that it can hopefully act as a reminder, as a sort of counterweight to the numbness of walking past a glass-cladded condoplex.
What's your next project?
Well, even though the film has been released, I believe there's still more of the story to tell, because we had to finish filming before the new factory opened. So, for one thing, I plan to do some additional shooting up there, and find a way of offering people a look at where the Streit's story has gone since the film was completed.
Also, when Streit's left Rivington Street, they brought practically everything from the old factory with them, with the intention of devoting a portion of the new factory to a museum, which would include much of their old machinery from Rivington Street in working order. They've asked me to be a part of helping put that space together, and I'm extremely grateful and excited for that opportunity.
As far as the next film, that I'm still figuring out. I've some ideas, and it's just a matter of feeling them out to see what's going to work — and finding funding, of course! This neighborhood and this city have a lot of important stories to tell, and I hope to have the opportunity to document more of them.
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The PBS program includes a one-hour version of the film, plus new interviews conducted by PBS with Streit family members. With a multi-year deal in place, Levine said that it appears the film will become an annual Passover tradition on PBS.
The special airs tonight on WNET at 10:30, and again early Sunday at 2:30 a.m. Find all showtimes at this link.
The DVD includes 25 minutes of bonus features, including footage shot at the Streit’s factory on Rivington Street in the 1940s.
Workers have put up the sidewalk bridge outside the former Sunshine Cinema on East Houston between Forsyth and Eldridge... the first step in securing the circa-1898 building for demolition...
... which is expected soon now that the developers — East End Capital and K Property Group — recently secured a $67 million construction loan to fund the roughly $90 million nine-story office building to come...
Per previous reports, the new building will cater "to deep-pocketed tenants in search of luxury boutique offices," with a 2021 completion expected.
The five-screen Landmark Sunshine Theater closed Jan. 21, 2018, after 17 years of screening an array of mostly independent and foreign fare.
Here we are over on East Houston at Lafayette looking west toward Broadway where two new developments are nearing completion — 300 Lafayette (picture above left) and 606 Broadway.
• 300 Lafayette
A 7-story boutique office building with luxury retail has risen on the former site of a BP station and the Irish pub Puck Fair. In total, the building will include 30,000 square feet of retail and 53,000 square feet of office space.
A 6-story mixed-use building now stands on that sliver of space between Broadway and Crosby. The building will sport about 11,500 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors with 22,751 square feet of office space on floors three to six.
Austrian bar-restaurant Edi & the Wolf is closing Sunday after nine years at 102 Avenue C between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
The restaurant — named after its executive chefs, Eduard "Edi" Frauneder and Wolfgang "the Wolf" Ban — is closing due to "increasing operating costs," Eater reports.
The closure had been expected, as a new applicant — listed as Rosey Kalayjian — appeared before CB3's SLA committee for a new liquor license for the space back in January in what was described as a sale of assets. The CB3 materials cited the proposal as "an American restaurant" with hours of 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Kalayjian has previously managed restaurants in Westchester and NYC.
Frauneder and Ban also operate The Third Man at 116 Avenue C. No word on the status of that bar.
