Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

André Balazs’s takeover of the Cooper Square Hotel isn’t the only news today.

DNAinfo has more on the rape that occurred on East Eighth Street Saturday morning. The victim’s attacker is described as “choking her so viciously that she lost consciousness.”

Elsewhere in Alphabet City, Off the Grid takes note of the Bullet Space gallery at 292 East Third Street – one of eleven buildings (this one dating back to 1867) that the city turned over to squatters for $1 each.

DNAinfo notices that Arnie Charnick, the artist whose work hangs in Veselka, has painted a new mural for Russo’s, the Italian grocery that has been in the neighborhood since 1904 and moved to East 11th Street in the 1950s.

According to NJ.com, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which was bumped from Tompkins Square Park owing to Irene, has been rescheduled for Friday. However, Archie Shepp won’t be appearing and you’ll have to “trane” it up to Marcus Garvey Park at 120th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Grub Street points out that La Palapa is celebrating Mexican Restaurant Week with dishes featuring pulque, a relatively obscure agave-based spirit.

The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop got a celebrity visitor, according to its Twitter feed: “Emeka Okafor (center for the New Orleans Hornets) is, thus far, the tallest person to stand with our unicorn.”