Good morning, East Village.
Vice spends the day with documentarian, gallerist, and neighborhood historian Clayton Patterson. His tour of the Lower East Side is above. After going to an opening at a neighborhood gallery he says, “I will guarantee that none of the people that grew up around here, none of the kids from down here, none of the people like Jesus that we met will ever set foot in that gallery; they will never feel welcome, they will never be welcome, and they will never go in there. So that then means, is that really art or is that gentrification?”
The Obama fundraiser that Mickey Boardman of Paper and others threw at Eastern Bloc raised over $10,000, according to the Washington Post. “The crowd of about 150 Obama supporters was cordial and relaxed, a mix of friends and fashion types, partying alongside male dancers wearing Obama ’08 boxer briefs (or, as one did, an American flag-themed thong) stuffed with the requisite $1 bills.”
Paper has some shots from ThreeAsFour’s Fashion Week show at The Hole. The designers “decked the models out in Spock-esque unibrows and chunky shattered-glass platform shoes, giving the whole collection an alien-priestess-meets Carnaby Road feel.”
Guest of a Guest notes that comedian Aziz Ansari made an appearance at the opening of Chez Andres, the pop-up club at the Standard East Village.
Steven Spielberg’s son, Sawyer Avery, is starring in “Belgrade Trilogy” at Fourth Street Theatre. Why isn’t he using his dad’s surname? “I wanted to tell my own story and have my own little journey and my own little adventure,” he tells The Post. “Sometimes the last name can be a little bit distracting
Gothamist and the Daily News think Union Square is becoming the cheese capital of New York. “Two recent artisanal cheese shops have opened in the area—Beecher’s Handmade Cheese and Bedford Cheese Shop. They join Whole Foods and Eataly, which both have impressive cheese sections, the new Agata & Valentina spot on University Place, as well as the cheesemakers of the Union Square Greenmarket to form the cheesiest area in Manhattan.”
The Post has ranked all of the city’s public schools.
On the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the Daily News remembers how a pepper spraying on East 12th Street changed everything: “The images generated when Bologna pepper-sprayed Occupy Wall Street protesters Sept. 24, helped to galvanize widespread support for the movement, which until then had attracted minimal media attention.”
Grub Street reported from the Community Board 3 meeting in which a neighborhood “nightlife district” was discussed. “CB3 district manager Susan Stetzer is in favor of the plan, but committee co-chair Richard Ropiak said while the idea might have worked twenty years ago in the area, ‘it ain’t going to happen now.'”
The Voice hears that the legendary Slipper Room, which closed for renovations two years ago, “will finally reopen this fall (167-Orchard Street), complete with better lights and even new fly rigs for acrobats.”
The Wall Street Journal stops into Bowery Kitchen. “Because the restaurant is attached to the Bowery House, a high-end but low-cost hotel, the clientele draws tourists as well as neighborhood locals, including visitors to the nearby New Museum.”
Turns out Puddin’ by Clio isn’t the only one whipping up the dessert in the East Village: the Daily News points out that Dirt Candy does a popcorn pudding.
The Price Hike reports that Northern Spy Food Co. has launched a $129 tasting menu for two.
