The nook that housed Obscura Oddities & Antiques just got a new tenant: MINKvixen. No, it isn’t selling taxidermied minks, like it’s ghoulish predecessor might have. In fact, one of its vintage purses is labeled 100-percent vegan.

“It’s just a place you can come and feel good and try on really cute clothes,” said owner Keri Cornachio, explaining the name. “It’s like a little mink vixen – it’s me!”

Before opening the boutique last week, the 27-year-old worked in Union Square for a beauty-and-fashion PR company. “I ended up just really hating it,” she said. “It was just very taxing on your soul, such a grind.” After a couple of years off, she looked into opening a shop in Bushwick, where she lives, but found that commercial rents in the increasingly trendy neighborhood were as expensive as those of the East Village. Read more…

Shira Levine

We interrupt this blog for a message from Handsome Dick Manitoba, via the Virtual Assignment Desk:

Sunday, January 20th, marks 14 years in business, for a “mom and pop” run Rock and Roll neighborhood tavern. Manitoba’s, @ 99 Ave. B, between 6th and 7th Streets, would like to say “thank you”, with reduced prices, snacks, football, Rock and Roll, and anything that is permissible, and legal between consenting adults. 1 PM, to 4 AM, a 15 hour celebration, on MLK Sunday. Monday, MLK Day, is a national holiday. So C’mon down and do your part to keep the wonderful culture we all come from,alive THANK YOU, HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA

You heard the man. And congrats on making it!

Daniel Maurer

Here’s your first look at the minimalist exterior of Kura, the diminutive Japanese joint that’s taking the place of Mohamed Falafel Star at 130 St. Marks Place. A peek inside the cubby-like space near Avenue A revealed that the chef’s counter has been built and it should be open soon.

Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer

Turns out Spin Hair isn’t the only salon that just opened in the neighborhood.

About a year after opening its first location in Murray Hill, Icon Hair Salon has opened an East Village outpost, Salon Icon, near 14th Street. The owners and general manager are no strangers to the neighborhood: they used to be at Ibiza Salon in Union Square.

Hair cuts are $30 (including a wash), or $55 with a blow-dry. A roots touch-up and blow-dry is $65. Single-process colorings with cut and style are $99. Highlights are $145, and Keratin treatments are $199. The shop carries an array of products by Morrocan Oil.

Icon Hair Salon, 222 First Avenue (between 13th and 14th Streets); (212) 510-7446

Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer

The area around 14th Street and First Avenue is about to become a dollar-slice mecca: 2 Bros. Pizza is opening a location in the former BaoBQ space, according to a contractor.

David Zem, one of the workers currently tiling the walls of 229 First Avenue in the style of the original 2 Bros. on St. Marks Place, said this location (the chain’s third in the East Village) would likely open in about two weeks.

The store, between 13th and 14th Streets, is poised right across from one of the two locations of Joey Pepperoni’s that recently opened, and just around the corner from the new Famous 99-Cent Pizza. Not to mention the $1 slice a block away at Papa John’s.

Meanwhile, next door to the incoming slice joint, the Subway that closed in October is up and running again.

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.

Armen Kachaturian Poster for CBGB show.

“I could describe her to you in details, but those are just facts. She was unforgettable, and everybody who knew her, loved her.”

That was Scott Kempner of The Dictators and the Del-Lords describing Helen Wheels, a woman who to the mainstream may seem like a punk rock history footnote, but who to CBGB veterans was a beloved icon.

Standing just over five feet tall, Helen embodied the tough, take-no-prisoners front-woman before Heart, Joan Jett or Pat Benatar made it acceptable. With tattoos, muscles and a friendship with the Hells Angels, she broke the mold, even for CBGBs. She claimed the beloved python, Lilith, was the largest privately-owned reptile in New York.

Helen got her start in the music scene early. While a student at Stony Brook in 1968, she met Blue Oyster Cult, then known as Soft White Underbelly. She moved into a house with them on Long Island and was soon designing their leather clothing and writing lyrics for their songs. Read more…

Daniel Maurer A lonely half mannequin.

Hope you got your Michelle Obama sneakers while you could: Hip-Hop USA has closed at 343 Lafayette Street.

Last night, a sign on the door said everything in the mostly empty store was for sale for “20 dollas.” A message on the pop-up’s Facebook page reads, “Hip Hop USA will be reopening in the Spring. Special thanks to our friends at Pinche Taqueria for making the best happy hour frozen margaritas in New York City.”

And a couple of other closings to note: a “for rent” sign just went up at 23 Third Avenue, where Little Italy Pizza is a goner after less than five months. And Rawvolution has also been closed in recent weeks. The raw-food shop’s number is disconnected and its Website says, “At this time we are not delivering locally to New York City, this is only temporary and will keep you updated when we do start again.”

Daniel Maurer Eddie Williams

Daniel Maurer

After sitting vacant for about a year, the former home of Furryland Pet Supply has a new tenant. Eddie J. Williams has moved his Lower East Side salon, Spin Hair, to the space at 195 Avenue A.

There’s no signage up yet (in fact, there’s still a “for lease” sign plastered across the awning) and the interior still needs work (among other things, a disco ball is on the way), but a chalkboard advertising a $29 blow-dry (normally $35) welcomed walk-ins today.

Mr. Williams, a 45-year-old Bronx native, received his training in the Vidal Sassoon style and has been cutting hair since 1984; when a rent hike forced him out of his location of three years, at 53 Stanton Street, he began looking elsewhere downtown. “People here are a little more laid-back than in midtown; they’re more open,” he said, describing his clientele as “guys who want to look a little hip but don’t want to pay $100, and don’t want to pay $10 either” (men’s cuts are $35) and “women that just want a damn good haircut” (women’s cuts are $60).

Spin specializes in keratin treatments (normally $350 but often discounted) and curling ($95). Coloring treatments range from $75 to $200. The salon is open from noon to 7 p.m. daily.

Spin Hair, 195 Avenue A (near East 12th Street), (212) 358-7746

Poorly chosen superimposed fonts, the flick of tracking being adjusted, and a hazy analog fuzz.

These are the hallmarks of VHS, and the absurd instructional videos, home movies, and public service announcements that Joe Pickett, Nick Prueher and Geoff Haas often screened for their friends in high school.

In 2004 the trio created the Found Footage Festival and toured with it to fund their first documentary, “Dirty Country.” This weekend, the sixth installment of the festival hits Anthology Film Archives.

If you’re among the many who frequent sites like Everything Is Terrible!, you’re well aware of the forgotten, personal, and downright bizarre things that have been committed to VHS tape. But while that site often relies on creative editing and splicing to solicit laughs, the videos in the Found Footage Festival are mostly untouched.

“Our philosophy is that the videos are weird enough on their own,” said Mr. Prueher. “We don’t need to weird them up at all. In fact, the more straightforward we are in presenting the videos as we found them, the funnier they are.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Those changes at The Stone aren’t the only thing that will shake up the East Village music scene come April: a new venue is slated to open in a former black-box theater underneath the Culture Project at 45 Bleecker Street.

SubCulture, a 180-seat performing arts and events space, will be a “really wonderful listening room,” according to co-founder Marc Kaplan.

The 34-year-old music educator (also a conductor of musical theater and choirs) is opening the venue with his brother Steven, 31, an amateur trumpet player and pianist who makes his living as a financial consultant. They’re currently remodeling the subterranean space into what they hope will be an ideal environment for intimate performances.

“While we could feature an artist with a 10-piece band, it might also be a great opportunity to have that artist in an ensemble set-up,” said Mr. Kaplan. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

“I used to hate stepping on crack vials, and now I miss those vials,” says Marty Rosen. The onetime street peddler has seen plenty of changes on St. Marks Place: he opened The Sock Man there three decades ago. “I asked myself, ‘What are the things that everyone needs?’ Well, they need socks. So I got a vending license and all that stuff. Then I saved up enough money to open a store,” he told The Local. Joey Ramone and Eric Clapton many not stop in anymore, but The Sock Man still gets its share of rockers: David Johansen of the New York Dolls recently snagged a $3 pair, and Courtney Love took home four tutus. But is the occasional visit from Chloe Sevigny (who called Mr. Rosen the “grumpiest man on earth”) enough to keep the institution alive and kicking should it get socked with a rent hike? We asked.

Has The Sock Man always been on St. Marks Place?

I’ve been here since 1983, but this is my third location on St. Marks. I was first somewhere for eight months. Now I’ve been in this spot since 1992. Before that I was across the street at 18 St. Marks. I left because I was under harassment by the landlord there and it was very stressful. I was caught in the middle of paying one guy the rent who wasn’t giving his partner any of the money. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer

The Panda Diplomacy pop-up isn’t the only newcomer on East Sixth Street: last week, the tiny space that briefly housed Cooper Square Convenience got a new tenant.

As you can guess from its name, Mosaic Lamps is stuffed wall-to-ceiling with lamps made of handblown glass, adorned with colorful mosaics.

Move over, Mosaic Man?

Actually, the goods aren’t made in the East Village: they’re imported from a factory in Turkey by Melissa Benovic, 35, a fine-dining waitress, and her boyfriend Ilker Arslan, 36, who grew up working at the grand bazaar in Istanbul. A typical hanging lamp is $80; the most impressive piece, a giant globe that hangs in the window, is $1,500. Other lamps are outfitted with copper stands.

Once the couple gets approval from the Food and Drug Administration, they’ll sell hand-painted ceramic plates and bowls. Candle holders are also on offer, for $4 each.

Mosaic Lamps, 208 East Sixth Street (between Cooper Square and Second Avenue); (212) 228-1964

Daniel Maurer, Suzanne Rozdeba Before and after.

Fares Deli-Grocery, which had been closed since it was seized by the state for nonpayment of taxes in July, is being replaced by Sahara Deli-Grocery.

Today, The Local ran into the new owner, who identified himself only as Ali, overseeing two workers as they erased the “Fares” name off the awning and replaced it with “Sahara.” He declined an interview, but confirmed he was taking over the store at 123 Avenue A, near St. Marks Place, and said it would be reopening soon.

Fares is the latest deli to get a facelift: last month, just a block away, the former 2020 Tobacco & Grocery was reborn as the Classic Gourmet Deli.

Daniel Maurer

Some news to note in the world of East Village jazz: first, the NYC Winter Jazz Fest rolls into the neighborhood this weekend, bringing 70 groups to six venues in the East, West, and Greenwich Villages. The ninth installment of the festival aims to bring jazz back to Bleecker Street and the Village — and the Bowery will jump, too: among the artists taking the stage at Bowery Electric on Friday and Saturday are Bobby Previte, Erik Deutsch, Frank Lacy, Mario Pavone, and Red Baraat. Other venues include Sullivan Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Zinc Bar, The Bitter End, and Culture Project Theater. Peruse the full schedule here.

Several of the artists performing at the festival — including Previte, Deutsch, and Pavone — have also played John Zorn’s non-profit The Stone, a homespun haven of avant-garde and experimental music. As you know from reading these pages, the club gives each month’s schedule over to a guest curator (next month’s is Vernon Reid, best known as the virtuoso axeman from Living Colour). But that will change in April.

A notice on The Stone’s Website reads: “Since April of 2005 The Stone has presented over 5,000 concerts and workshops booked by over 130 different curators from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia, the Caribbean and beyond! March 2013 marks the last of our curatorial series. In April and for the next several years we are proud to present a variety of distinguished cutting-edge artists in week-long Stone Residencies, performing their own work 6 nights a week, two sets a night.” Read more…

© 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved. Ginsberg photographed by Burroughs, 1953.

© 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. Outside of Ginsberg’s 12th Street
kitchen window, 1984.

Next week is going to be a special one for fans of Allen Ginsberg: Wednesday evening the poet’s friends and colleagues will gather to celebrate the reissue of “First Blues,” and Monday, an exhibition of his photos will open at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery.

“Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg” originally showed at the National Gallery of Art in 2010, and gathered photos taken from 1953 (when Ginsberg documented his friends William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Neal Cassady in their salad days) to 1996, when he photographed himself turning 70.

Now Sarah Greenough, the D.C. gallery’s senior curator, has gathered 80  photographs that appeared in the previous exhibit’s handsome catalogue and will display them alongside 14 additional photos on loan from the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York.

Many of the black-and-white shots show the East Village as Ginsberg saw it, starting with a 1953 shot of “the first shopping cart street prophet I’d directly noticed” alongside Tompkins Square Park. The caption, added later, reads: “Leshko’s Restaurant was cheap and popular as at present on the corner a block south, I had my snapshots developed at a drugstore near Park Center eatery across the street on S.W. corner, & was living with W.S. Burroughs a few blocks away 206 East 7th Street– working as copyboy on now-defunct ‘New York World Telegram,’ my apartment rent $29.00 a month, three small rooms.” Read more…

Malai Marke, the Indian restaurant that promised to bring “the ultimate dollop of ethereal joy” to Curry Row, is now open for lunch and dinner.

As mentioned last month, the restaurant comes from the owner of Curry Hill spots Singapura, Chote Nawab, and Dhaba, and it has an interesting connection to its neighbor, Brick Lane Curry House, as well. Roshan Balan, the general manager at Malai Marke, went to school in India with Brick Lane’s owner; they emigrated to the United States around the same time in the early 2000s, and briefly worked at Carnival Cruises together, said Mr. Balan.

Brick Lane’s success didn’t dissuade owner Shiva Natarajan from setting up shop on the same block, in the former Taj Mahal space. “We’ve been targeting this spot since 2008,” Mr. Balan said. “We thought we’d bring in real, authentic Indian cuisine.”

Sure, you can get a chicken tikka masala for cheaper at other joints on the block, but Mr. Balan believes there’s a difference: “It’s the quality.” Which comes from chef Karti Pant, previously at Michelin-starred Junoon. The menu he’s now serving from the open kitchen is below, complete with a selection of Goan specialties and shout-outs to spiritual guru Swami Sivananda Saraswait.
Read more…

Annie Fairman Aida Salgado marked the anniversary of her son’s
death in October.

As the investigation into the shooting death of 16-year-old Raphael Ward continues, a trial date in the alleged killing of another area teen, Keith Salgado, remains elusive.

In court yesterday, the District Attorney and Mr. Smith’s lawyer set late February as the date to determine when the trial will be held.

Hockeem Smith, who is alleged to have shot the 18-year-old a little over a year ago, winked at the gallery as he entered the courtroom.

Sitting in the row behind Mr. Smith’s mother and wearing a pin with her son’s photo, Aida Salgado said she was “a little bit discouraged” that a trial date hadn’t been set.

The grieving mother said Raphael Ward’s killing, so similar to that of her son, “really brought me back to the beginning” of the healing process.

“It completely, completely reopened every wound,” she said.

As with the Salgado slaying, some have speculated that Mr. Ward’s killing might be linked to longstanding antagonisms between public housing complexes above Houston Street, including Campos Plaza and Riis Houses, and those located below, such as the Smith and Baruch Houses.

Illustration: Tim Milk

“My most persistent dream,” he once told Gloria Steinem, “always took place backstage in a theater. I have a very important part to play. The only trouble is that I’m in a panic because I don’t know my lines…”

Truman Capote then elaborates: “Finally, the moment comes. I walk onstage… but I just stumble about, mortified. Have you ever had that dream?”

On the face of it, the horror of stage fright fuels a man’s dreams. That seems straightforward enough; but you wouldn’t need to be Sigmund Freud to find meaning in a writer forgetting his lines. For a writer, such a dream speaks to what one might call the Artist’s Dilemma: the what? why? and how? of the creative act. These are the questions every artist must face. Capote based his career on having the answers to those basic questions.

For his smash hit “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and the non-fiction blockbuster “In Cold Blood,” Mr. Capote became the brightest of the many stars who formed a seemingly unstoppable literary movement whose epicenter was here, right here, in unstoppable New York. One could say their success was typical of the 20th Century, when Hollywood, and then television, made household names of authors like Tennessee Williams, Harper Lee and Truman Capote, modern masters of the creative act. Furthermore, it didn’t end there.

Throughout the go-go 1960s, Capote continued to dazzle the world from his rounds of the talk-show circuit. That was where Truman and I first met: he was a sensation, and I was a wide-eyed kid addicted to television. Unlike the usual talking heads or dancing-poodle routines, Capote spilled on the nature of art as well as the art of life. These were the things I wanted to know, you see, because I too aspired to live life to the fullest and soar on the wings of art.
Read more…

Bahram Foroughi

Good morning, East Village.

Activists traveled to Tarrytown to picket the offices of Whole Earth Bakery’s landlord. [East Villager]

The Juice Press has opened a 1,500-square-foot flagship in the meatpacking district, “the first step in the company’s plans to cover New York with cold-pressed, vegan, organic juice, from the Upper West Side to Williamsburg.” [Grub Street]

Short-rib and bone marrow toast, chicken potpie and duck confit carbonara are some of the items that will be served at Boulton & Watt, in the former Nice Guy Eddie’s space. [NY Times]

At The General, EMM Group’s new restaurant on the Bowery, you’ll find “dim lighting, gold-and-red-brocaded wallpaper, candlelit lamps—all in all, a pretty Asian-y scene.” [UrbanDaddy] On the menu: “sushi rolls (spicy tuna, salsa verde; spicy king crab, mango sauce, wasabi honey) and small plates (roasted duck salad, Philly pepper steak sticky buns).” [Daily Candy] You can see some of the dishes and the complete menu at Grub Street.

At L’Apicio, “crowd-pleasing food isn’t chasing trends or setting them, but with its bold, layered flavors, it has enough personality to match that quirky wine list.” [Timeout]

“The Department of Transportation is shelling out nearly $2 million to turn 12,000 old parking-meter poles into bike racks.” [NY Post]