Mary Reinholz Carmen Trotta, front, and hooded protesters.

Last time, it was hoodies; this time, hoods.

On Saturday, a group of orange-clad, hooded demonstrators protested the Obama administration’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Carmen Trotta, the associate editor of the Catholic Worker’s newspaper, who lives in its St. Joseph’s residence on East First Street, said the demonstration was intended to make others aware of the president’s broken election-year promise. “A lot of people think he has already closed it,” said Mr. Trotta, who is also on the executive committee of the War Resisters League and a founder of Witness Against Torture.

Mr. Trotta said he would join other pacifists in Washington, D.C. for a protest tomorrow, and noted that Amnesty International and other anti-war and humanitarian groups would hold another demonstration June 26 at City Hall.

Ray LeMoine

Bret Easton Ellis is renting his condo in the American Felt Building. For $5,000 a month, any ol’ chap can live in the loft that spawned Patrick Bateman, the banker/serial-killer protagonist of “American Psycho,” a Wall Street satire that many never saw as a joke, despite all the mentions of Genesis, moisturizing, sit-ups and Vidal Sassoon.

Mr. Ellis announced the rental of apartment 2D, purchased in the ’80s, to his nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter.

But don’t get too excited: though his bed remains, the writer himself hasn’t lived at 114 East 13th Street for six years. Posters and first editions of his books decorated the walls when it was first rented out, but they’ve since been moved, according to Miles Chapin, who showed the loft over the weekend. Read more…

A woman was shot at the Jacob Riis Houses early this morning, the police said.

The victim was shot in the thigh shortly after midnight, according to the police. Officers taped off an area at the end of East Sixth Street and were seen examining evidence in the street as well as going in and out of Building 16 of the Riis Houses, at the northeast corner of East Sixth Street and FDR Drive.

The police could not provide the victim’s age or description but said she was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Information about the shooter’s identity was not immediately available.

The incident comes a week after a man was stabbed to death on East Fifth Street and two weeks after another stabbing victim was found at East Fourth Street. In his Crime Scene column on Saturday, Mike Wilson of The Times reported that Carl Knox, the suspect in last weekend’s stabbing, was still at large as of Friday.

Brian Rose’s new book, “Time and Space on the Lower East Side,” juxtaposes street scenes from 1980 with images from 2010. The Local asked him to share some of his favorites from the book – as well as some more recent photos – along with his thoughts about the world of change he has documented.

East 4th Street – 1980

In 1980, shortly after graduating from Cooper Union I began photographing the Lower East Side, which includes the East Village, in collaboration with Ed Fausty. Walking in the footsteps of photographers Jacob Riis and Berenice Abbot, and inspired by new developments in color photography, we documented the neighborhood over the course of a year with a 4×5 view camera. It was, perhaps, the neighborhood’s darkest, but most creative moment. While buildings crumbled and burned, artists and musicians came to explore and express the edgy quality of the place.

After moving on to other projects and living in Amsterdam for 12 years, I decided to return to where I first made my stand in New York – the Lower East Side, where so many Americans trace their roots: the old neighborhood tucked beneath the bridges, lying at the feet of the pinnacles of power, would serve as a barometer of change and continuity. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Just a block or two from where his Kiss mural may soon disappear, Antonio “Chico” Garcia added what he called “a brush of color” to the back wall of Arena Eco-Friendly Salon last night.

Rena Anastasi, the owner of the salon at 189 Orchard Street, said the hot pink touches came out “even brighter than I thought,” but she’s feeling it. “It’s definitely fun, LES fun.”

Chico said he’s headed back to his new home in Tampa, Florida in a couple of weeks. Until then, he’ll be repairing his work in the area, including the murals outside the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which got a touch-up yesterday afternoon. “I’m just doing something for the community before I leave,” he said.

Daniel Maurer The museum’s fence got a new coat of paint today.

Word just came down from the Landmarks Preservation Commission that a critical hearing on a proposed nine-story hotel next-door to the Merchant’s House Museum has been postponed so that the developer can have more time to prepare a presentation. A spokeswoman said the developer has asked to present the project on July 24.

“I feel like we’ve just come off the L.P.C. ledge,” joked Margaret Halsey Gardener, the executive director of the museum. She added that dialogue between the museum and SRA Architects, which is designing the proposed hotel, has improved since last month. The developer recently installed a seismograph in the museum to monitor construction in the lot on East Fourth Street near Bowery.

But the concerns regarding the hotel’s impact on the house’s structure — as well as the experience for museum visitors — remain. In fact, when the developer recently dug test pits to examine the foundation of the lot “the house was shaking pretty violently,” Ms. Gardener said.

Update | 4:30 p.m. Breaking News: The Merchant’s House Museum’s fence just got a new coat of paint, as pictured above.

Photos: Noah Fecks.

Yesterday, The Local showed you a mural (possibly 80 years old) excavated during renovations of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. If that got you feeling nostalgic for the old dive, by all means indulge in the slideshow above. Back in February, our photographer Noah Fecks found time – in between cooking meals from every issue of “Gourmet” magazine in his East Village apartment – to wander into the Holiday just days after The Local published photos from the final night of service. These postmortem shots, published here for the first time, are a fine tribute to the St. Marks stalwart.

Courtesy of Underworld Productions. A dance performance in the garden last year.

You’ll have your pick of outdoor concerts tomorrow.

At 3 p.m., a group of opera performers will take the stage at La Plaza Cultural Armando Perez to delight local kids with songs about cats, dogs and rhinos, as the Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble presents “Animals in the Plaza,” a collection of operas performed in their original Spanish, French, English or Italian languages. “We believe children respond to opera in its true form, not watered down,” director Gina Crusco said. Songs include “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat,” “Wynken, Blynken and Nod” and “El Rinoceronte/The Rhinoceros.”

Also tomorrow, the Cooper Square Committee presents its annual Third Avenue Festival: from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 150 vendors and non-profits will dot the avenue from Sixth Street to 14th Street. Performances will take place at East Ninth Street from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. by singer-songwriter Michelle Fury, The St. Marks Ensemble, Kate Vargas, Filthy Rotten System, Marcel Van Dam et Paul, The Dan Piccoli Trio, and The JewelTones.

Sarah Darville Tommy McKean in the air shaft of his building.

This feud over an air conditioning unit certainly isn’t cooling off.

Employees of a Hamptons Market Place at 356 East 13th Street switched off power to their entire building this morning, leaving 16 apartments without electricity for about an hour. Outraged tenants said it’s only the latest disruption that has been inflicted on them by the deli, which installed an air conditioner and ventilator unit on the roof that has bothered them to no end.

The owner of the deli, who has grown weary of a year of noise complaints, is so fed up that today he raised the possibility of a harassment suit against the tenants.

“I can’t get a psychiatrist to come into their apartments but I wish I could,” the owner, Victor Nagi said, later adding, “The tenants are harassing me. They’re complaining every other day and getting me these fines.” Read more…

Noah Fecks Mural from Ali Baba

Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa who in February took over the adjacent Holiday Cocktail Lounge space, tells The Local she plans to preserve elements of the iconic dive, including the awning and the horseshoe bar. Not only that, but she’s restoring elements of the cocktail lounge that came before it.

Ms. Sibley said that the removal of a mirror and deer’s head from behind the bar revealed a mural belonging to the Holiday’s predecessor, which she believes was called the Ali Baba lounge. The 6-by-4-foot mural, as you can see above, shows a dancer being observed by men and harem girls. Read more…

Photos: Noah Flecks

Michael White, the oft-lauded chef-owner of three-star seafood palace Marea, fine-dining Italian spot Ai Fiori, and SoHo’s Osteria Morini, will open Nicoletta, his first pizzeria, for dinner tomorrow, and the pies will be a touch different from the ones at all those other East Village parlors. (A Midwestern touch, to be exact.)

The crust, formed in a wood-burning brick oven (imported from… Long Island) was inspired by Mr. White’s teenage years slinging dough at Domenicos in Beloit, Wis., and is said to be a bit chewier than the Neapolitan norm. Pies, said to cost an average of $21, will come in 12-inch and 16-inch varieties, and can be topped with bacon lardons, egg yolk, truffled mushrooms, and more. Shown in our slideshow: the Calabrese (fennel sausage, pepperoni, red onions, and Pecorino Romano) and the Patate (mozzarella, crushed potatoes, pann, bacon, and charred scallions). Read more…

Daniel Maurer

The Bean finally opened its outpost at First Avenue and Ninth Street this morning. When The Local stopped in, manager Guy Puglia was busy setting up the WiFi and co-owner Ike Escava was anticipating a shipment of outdoor benches.

Daniel Maurer James Wechsler’s art.

The coffee spot’s third location (and its last one for now, said Mr. Escava) is the same size as the Second Avenue cafe that opened in December, though it has 10 more seats (60 in all). It’s offering the same array of muffins, danishes, espresso drinks, smoothies, and – oh, yes! – frozen hot chocolate, but won’t be in the beer and wine business anytime soon: the owners decided not to go for a license after neighbors voiced opposition.

Despite the lack of that particular competitive edge, Mr. Escava said he wasn’t concerned that a Starbucks is opening just a few blocks up First Avenue. Read more…

Melvin Felix

After opening in September, Krust Pizzeria has reduced the price of its slices from $2.50 to $1 for the next month, and likely for good.

“Pizzerias are getting competitive in New York,” explained Pemba Sherpa, the owner of the pizzeria at 226 East 14th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, just a block from Artichoke. “Even if you have a good pizza it doesn’t guarantee you’re going to do good.”

Mr. Sherpa said that on Monday, he began selling a “little bit of a smaller pizza” with “somewhat modified” ingredients in order to appeal to the N.Y.U. crowd. The new business model, mastered by 2 Bros. on St. Marks Place, has paid off: Mr. Sherpa said he was already doing four times the business as he was before.

Photos: Suzanne Rozdeba

Local nightlife impresario Ravi DeRossi’s latest venture is a Victorian and Steampunk-themed bar, and it’s set to open at 6 p.m. tonight.

“It’s a fusion of sci-fi, fantasy, and Victorian times,” said Mr. DeRossi, who also owns nearby Death & Co. and The Bourgeois Pig. “We wanted to give it a grittier edge.”

Patrons enter the bar through a door decorated with golden wings; inside the dark space, there’s a ceiling mural by artist David Nordine, who also painted the bar’s exterior. A metal cage stands in the middle of the front room, mosaic murals tile the floors, and clocks, museum replica pieces, and clock parts cover the back room’s walls. Around the bar hang handmade sconces by Steampunk artist Art Donovan. Read more…

After asking local food maven Kim Davis to suss out the neighborhood’s tastiest biscuits, porchetta, and smoked meat, we sent him to find out how a pork bun newbie stacks up against a couple of heavyweights.

Noah Fecks Pork buns at Jum Mum

There’s a pork bun bonanza in the East Village this summer, with Baohaus now located on East 14th Street, and newcomer Jum Mum joining the gua bao stakes on St Marks Place. I set out to compare these aspirants with Momofuku’s gold standard product, and ended up satisfied, sticky-fingered, and not too much lighter in the wallet.

Eddie Huang’s Baohaus built a wildly enthusiastic following for Taiwanese pork buns, in a basement space on Rivington, now home to Pok Pok Wing, before opening on 14th Street last year. Baohaus dresses its “Chairman Bao” with traditional Taiwanese garnishes – pickled mustard greens, fresh coriander, crushed peanuts and red sugar. It’s a sweetish snack, and also embraces Taiwanese tradition by preserving the jelly-like cap of fat on each slice of belly.  If you’re averse to pork fat, get the crunchy fried chicken bun instead. $3.50 apiece. Read more…

If you thought the lost episode of “Fear Factor” that Gawker recently excerpted was Too Much Donkey Information, you may want to steer clear of this week’s installment of the New Filmmakers’ Fest at Anthology Film Archives. At 6 p.m., the program kicks off with “Donkey Love,” about men in northern Colombia who have sex with donkeys. (Seems those secret service agents didn’t see the half of it.) The film’s premise (and trailer, above) left us with more than a few questions. So we spoke with the film’s director, Daryl Stoneage, to find out – among other things – if he wasn’t just making it all up.

Is this real?

This is 100 percent real. Some days when I Google search my name or talk to my girlfriend’s parents, I wish it wasn’t, but it truly is. Read more…

Nice Guy Eddie’s just announced on Facebook that after 16 years it will close on Sunday. News that the Avenue A sports bar owned by Community Board 3 member David McWater would shut down broke in April when it was revealed that the owner of Ella and Gallery Bar, Darin Rubell was taking over the space. Meanwhile, the staff of the bar popular among football fans tells customers, “We’re throwing a huge party Sunday, so stop by and wish us farewell!” Still no word on whether the Kiss mural by Chico will remain.

Suzanne Rozdeba Billy Leroy with Jim Jarmusch at his goodbye bash.

“Baggage Battles” has been renewed for 14 episodes, Billy Leroy told The Local. The second season will start filming July 11 at a customs auction in Newark.

The eccentric antiques dealer, who buried his tent on the Bowery in March, said he was looking forward to working on the Travel Channel’s reality show again. “The director Yon Motskin really has a great sense of humor and I love when he puts me in humorous situations,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Nothing is more rewarding than people coming up to me on the street and saying they laughed at some of the comic stunts we pulled.” Read more…

Summer is a time for garden parties, rooftop views, and cocktails. If you can enjoy all that while supporting local non-profits, so much the better. Here are a few chances this week to do just that.

“COCKTAILS FOR CAMP”
Who: Lower Eastside Girls Club
What: Cocktails, food, and open wine and beer bar.
When: June 13, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Veselka Bowery, 9 East First Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery.
Tickets: $25 at the door. More info here.

“GARDEN PARTY”
Who: Good Old Lower East Side
What: Plant summer vegetables and enjoy food and entertainment.
When: Friday, June 15, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: Campos Garden, 628 East 12th Street, between Avenues B and C.
Tickets: Free, but you can make a donation. More info here.

“SKYLINE: A COCKTAIL PARTY”
Who: Fourth Arts Block
What: Cocktail party with live music, DJ, drinks, and raffle.
When: Tuesday, June 19, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: The Standard East Village, 25 Cooper Square, between East Fifth and Sixth Streets.
Tickets: $45, $85, $150. More info here.