Stephen Rex Brown A Department of Health worker drops rat poison into the sewer.

The rats might be returning to Tompkins Square Park (depending on who you ask) but don’t think the city is waving the white flag. While walking the beat today we came upon two health department employees dropping poison into a sewer grate at East Seventh Street and Avenue A. One of them confirmed that the bait was meant to thin the hordes of rodents that last year became a media sensation.

While Martin Scorsese’s upcoming project, “Wolf on Wall Street,” makes headlines, one of the director’s early classics, “Mean Streets,” is also back in the public eye, as it was finally released on Blu-ray last month.

The 1973 film was set mostly in the Little Italy (the gang’s seedy clubhouse was at 23 Cleveland Place), but it has its East Village moments, too: in one scene, a squeegee man annoys Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) while they’re stopped at Bowery and Bleecker Street. When the light turns, they glide past 310 Bowery, which was then Bowery Lumber Co. and is now Crime Scene Bar and Lounge.

As it turns out, another scene is tied to the neighborhood, as well. During a 25th anniversary screening at Film Forum in 1998, Scorsese revealed that the pool-hall brawl was based on an actual incident on Sixth Street and Second Avenue.

In this video of that talk – newly edited for The Local to include footage from the film – the director reveals that he and his star, Robert De Niro, first met when they were 16 years old, when Scorsese was growing up a stone’s throw from the East Village. Read more…

The latest two pitches to come in via The Local’s Virtual Assignment Desk are wonderfully high fallutin. Want to look to the future and attend a conference about integrating art and the Web? Or look to the past by experiencing a reenactment Emily Dickinson’s life? Ruckus NYC is coming on Sept. 29 and before that, on Sept. 15, NYC Lit Crawl once again brings a host of literary-minded events to bars (and laundromats!) across the East Village. See here for the full schedule (including a Philip K. “Dick-a-thon,” a poetry smackdown, literary trivia, and appearances by Molly Ringwold and Irvine Welsh) and see below for details about the time warp with Emily Dickinson.

Ruckus NYC comes to Cooper Union
Ruckus NYC (http://kck.st/PFds5F and http://ruckusnyc.tumblr.com/) is a one-day conference & concert about art & the internet happening on September 29th at Cooper Union. During the day working artists will present their art and their experiences building a career in the new digital economy. At night, there will be a show with over a dozen widely varying performances. Ruckus NYC is designed to help artists connect with audiences, and to build that audience.

Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown These two construction workers at 51 Astor Place put on a show yesterday that would make Philippe Petit proud.

Good morning, East Village.

Yesterday, two of the owners of CBGB sent along word that they had just returned from Russia, where they hand delivered a letter in support of the band Pussy Riot to the office of the prosecutor general in Moscow. Tim Hayes and Louise Parnassa Staley convened with the band’s family members, legal defense team and others, according to a press release. The letter, in support of the three women found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison, was signed by the likes of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Anthony Bourdain. “They are punks and CBGB felt a need to support punks in trouble,” Mr. Hayes wrote in an e-mail. “We spent very intense days with their families, lawyers and friends. The environment in Moscow is much more heated than we ever expected.” He added, “Pussy Riot is the most dangerous band in the world; without question. They are also the most important band in the world today.”

A reader complains to EV Grieve that the scaffolding beside Solas has turned into a raucous after-party zone. Earlier this month a neighbor of the nightclub ended up in handcuffs after taking pictures of a boozed up club-goer passed out on the street.

Bowery Boogie doesn’t seem too keen on couples taking wedding announcement photos in front of Aiko’s wall. Read more…

Animal Care and Control Star chews on a toy, undeterred by her missing eye.

The pit bull who took a bullet from a police officer on 14th Street and lived to tell the tale had surgery today to remove her left eye, as well as metal fragments still lodged in her skull.

“Star had suffered soft tissue, bone, head trauma, and eye damage as a result of her wounds,” said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city Animal Care and Control, which handled care for the dog, Star. “She suffered a significant degree of hearing loss, but her hearing is coming back and the vision in her right eye also seems to be improving.” Another photo…

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.

Emily Armstrong Max Blagg

August 1980 in the Lower East Side: it was the Summer of Heroin.

Clinton Street was not yet restaurant row – it was lined with shooting galleries, rows of cars with Jersey plates and steerers plying their wares. “We got Snoopy, 7-Up, Yellow Bag; we got the stuff that can kill you, man!” – a pitch both fascinating and confounding. Junkies were on every other corner and street muggings were rampant. Home break-ins were a fact of life so common that it became uninteresting unless it happened to you.

Which it did. We came home one night to find our apartment tossed and our video equipment gone. At the time, we were running the Video Lounge at Danceteria and our coworkers rallied to our support, organizing a benefit. Poet Max Blagg, then a bartender at the club, read his epic, “Smack Yourself Senseless.” His poem, a brutal five minute take-down of heroin chic, was a comfort. Read more…

N.Y.P.D. The suspect.

The police department has released a surveillance image of the suspect in Saturday’s bank robbery.

The suspect passed a note to a teller at the Chase Bank on Second Avenue near East 10th Street at 12:40 p.m., the police said. The teller then forked over a wad of cash, and the robber made a run for it, toting a black Pullman suitcase.

He is thought to be in his 20s or 30s, 200 pounds and five-foot-10.

When the music’s over, turn out the lights?

A reader took this photo of the former home of Norman’s Sound and Vision as it was cleared out yesterday. The record store closed its location at 67 Cooper Square after 18 years and is now based in Williamsburg, at 555 Metropolitan Avenue, where its new incarnation opened in April.

“More music-minded people are living out there. It’s what the East Village was 20 years ago,” Norman Isaacs told The Local in May, when it came to light that the shop would leave the neighborhood in the face of a rent increase.

Of course, the East Village still has its share of record stores. And here’s what they’re playing.

Next month’s Community Board 3 agenda just landed in The Local’s inbox, and with it comes the list of bars and restaurants that will seek a recommendation in their favor for a license to sell alcohol, along with an assortment of other issues. Here’s a roundup.

Vladi Radojicic Nublu.

Nublu will seek approval for a renewal of its wine and beer license. Very little has been heard from the jazz club since the State Liquor Authority temporarily shut the place down due to its proximity to a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall. Though the club itself has not faced much controversy since then, neighbors who recently spoke out against the sandwich shop, Bikinis, implied that its owners were not trustworthy due to their association with Nublu.

The Lobster Joint will also seek approval for a liquor license at its future location on Houston Street. Two days ago, its owner was on the street seeking signatures in support of his application.

Paulaner Brauhaus, the large Bowery beer hall that has faced its fair share of construction and community board woes, will once again seek approval for a full liquor license.

As has been the case since early this year, Nevada Smiths is on the agenda seeking approval for a liquor license at its new location. The soccer bar’s owner told The Local today he is hoping to open in October.

Vella Market, the gourmet deli bound for the former Kate’s Joint space, will plead its case for wine and beer.  Read more…

Daniel Maurer

The new Starbucks isn’t the only one that got signage today. The Local spotted workers putting up new awnings at the former Meatball Factory, which, as expected, will become a seafood joint.

Robert McRae, a contractor, said he had returned the Meatball Factory space at 14th Street and Second Avenue “almost to normal” after its brief time as a psychedelic art café, restoring the bar to its original state and so on. Soon, he said, fishing nets and perhaps a “pirate’s wheel” will decorate the place, which is set to open Sept. 7.

Carlisle Brigham, the 29-year-old woman who died from a slip down the stairs of 191 Orchard Street on Monday, was on the verge of entering rehab, The Post reports. According to the paper’s sources, Ms. Brigham’s father — who served under Mayor Ed Koch — was flying into the city to help her cope with her drinking, which had become a major concern. The Times also has more details on Ms. Brigham, who is described as a talented “starlet” who was “a natural fit with the society Web sites that featured photos of her snapped at galas, charity events and gallery openings.” Less than an hour before she was found dead, she spoke with her father.

Daniel Maurer

“Smash,” last spotted at Cafe Orlin, was back in the East Village today, filming at Cooper Triangle. The paparazzi were out in full force trying to catch a glimpse of Debra Messing.

Sorry, this is the best our not-exactly-telephoto iPhone could muster, but rest assured Ms. Messing is Instagramming from the set. And being a friendly neighbor, too: the actress retweeted a welcome to N.Y.U.’s class of 2016.

Photos: Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer Future home of Nevada Smiths

Back in February we got a first look at two enlarged buildings as they came out from under plywood. Today, there’s progress at both of them.

Just minutes ago, workers were spotted hoisting signage for the Starbucks going into  219 First Avenue, at the corner of 13th Street. A contractor said the store may open next week.

As you can see in our slideshow, this ‘bucks won’t have discrete lettering like the “neighborhood Starbucks” that replaced the Bean farther down First Avenue. Nope, it’s old-school all the way!

And over at 100 Third Avenue, the (bi-level!) space that will soon house the new Nevada Smiths has been revealed. Clearly, it’s still very much under construction. We’ve asked the owners of Nevada’s, who were back in front of the Community Board 3 last week, for their latest opening date. We’ll let you know what we hear.

Update | 11:20 a.m. Patrick McCarthy, owner of Nevada Smiths, has now told us he’s shooting for “sometime in October,” with the floor hopefully going in tomorrow. “Oh my God, it’s a big place,” he said.

Above is a video sent to The Local by bartender Ethan Minsker, who also created the footage of paper cutouts reenacting his memoir, “Barstool Prophets.” “Here is a video I made on the old fanzine we did for more then 20 years in the East Village,” he wrote in a message sent through The Local’s Facebook page.

A CNN iReport expresses many of the same sentiments popping up on Star the pit bull’s Facebook fan page. Charlie Cifarelli, a native New Yorker who now lives in Nebraska, actually started the page after seeing footage of the dog being shot. “I cried, but no tears outside; I’m a guy I cried inside,” he said. “I never felt such pain because I saw a dog screaming in pain, Lech on the ground and all the children who had to see this pain. I saw the Police shooting in the direction of each other and thought this is insane.” Mr. Cifarelli is now looking for the dog’s owner. “As a business man, I have helped others get back on their feet. I offer them help, a place to stay and a job. In all the media that has been written in the two weeks, I am concerned that Stankiewicz’s needs have been overlooked.”

EV Grieve noticed new renderings of what the Amato Opera could be. (Hint: “Bowery Fashion.”) Read more…

Courtesy Maharlika

The folks at Maharlika posted photos today of last weekend’s balut-eating contest. (Got a strong stomach? There’s video, too.) The man you see here is winner Wayne Algenio, who ate 18 fertilized duck embryos in five minutes. A spokesperson for Maharlika said, “We created a great way to introduce the public to Filipino food as well as saw a champion rise.” Hopefully that’s all that came up.

The New York Times

The injuries that caused the death of 29-year-old Carlisle Brigham were “consistent with a fall down the stairs,” a spokeswoman for the city’s medical examiner said.

An autopsy revealed that the woman, whose father served as the city budget director under Mayor Ed Koch, died of “blunt impact injuries of the head and neck.” When news broke of the gory death at 191 Orchard Street yesterday morning, the police said that Ms. Brigham had been sliced across the neck (the amount of blood around her neck led to that theory, according to the Post). But the examiner’s report did not include anything regarding a cut.

If photos of the anti-Republican fervor that overcame much of the city in 2004 didn’t make you feel patriotic, perhaps this footage of the TOWN Sidewalk Festival at 26 Astor Place will. Yoga demonstrations, the Standard East Village’s ice cream, and a food truck displaying art were all on hand — set to the soundtrack of Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.” The event continues for another half hour.

Stephen Rex Brown Han Joo is close to opening, pending city
permits.

A popular Korean barbecue joint in Flushing, Queens aims to open an outpost on St. Marks Place next month.

Co-owner Daeyoung Kim said that construction of the East Village location of Han Joo is on schedule, but that he was still waiting on an assortment of city permits. Previously, a sock shop named Sox in the City occupied the space at 12 St. Marks Place.

Taking a break from building the restaurant, Mr. Kim touted the Flushing location’s reputation, noting its crystal grill, and the naeng-myun cold noodle soup. The latter is the restaurant’s specialty, though an assortment of reviews rave about the grilled pork belly.

“It’s really famous,” Mr. Kim said of the restaurant that opened in 2001.

With the Republican National Convention underway in Tampa, Fla., photographer Matthew Kraus shares some thoughts and images of a convention that hit closer to home.

The few years following 9/11 were an interesting time in New York City. There seemed to be a closeness among New Yorkers that only such an event could foster. And there was certainly more than a little dissatisfaction in what our government was doing, partially in the name of that day. So when the Republican Party chose New York as the location of its convention during its 2004 bid to reelect Bush, there was a sizable amount of protest in all the usual places (the U.N., City Hall, Wall Street, etc.). Meanwhile in and around the East Village, I started noticing more and more signs, posters and predominantly stickers.

In those days, I would walk my then three-year-old to school from 14th Street and Avenue C to Second Street and Avenue A, and if I took a different route every day, I could photograph no less than 20 unique versions of these “protests.” They went up with shocking volume and speed and ranged from direct confrontation with Bush, to specific 9/11 references; from general rejection of the Republican Party to actual calls for action. Read more…