Frigid Festival, the annual fringe festival that is not to be confused with Fringe Festival, is back. This year’s lineup includes a new “true crime musical comedy” from the team behind the bawdy “Bayside: The Unmusical.” Tastefully titled “JonBenét Ramsey: Murder Mystery Theater,” it promises to “boldly recreate that fateful night of the fateful murder in that fateful town of Boulder, Colorado. With music!” Oh, boy. If that’s just a bit much for you, dozens of other out-there productions will run Feb. 20 to March 3 at the Kraine Theater, The Red Room, and Under St. Marks. See the full lineup and get tickets here.

Javier Beltrán and Robert Pattinson as Lorca and
Dali, in “Little Ashes.”

If you’re a Spanish and Latin American poetry buff, prepare to be lured out of your armchair in the coming months: the life of Federico García Lorca is hitting the stage and a major exhibition is coming to town — and the poems of Pablo Neruda are being set to music.

Ute Lemper, a German actress and musician who has previously put Charles Bukowski’s poems to song, is now doing the same with the love poems that Neruda wrote for his wife upon returning to Chile after his political exile. She’ll perform “Song Cycle of Love Poems” at Joe’s Pub on Feb 1 and 2. (The acclaimed songstress already has some East Village credentials: Philip Glass co-wrote a little number for her star-studded album “Punishing Kiss.”)

Neruda and Pablo Picasso were noted collaborators, and — as made clear by the Robert Pattinson flick “Little Ashes” and by a book edited by, well, my dad — the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí had a “passionate, tragic relationship,” or so the painter said. Read more…

Courtesy Judi Rosen

What’s Judi Rosen been doing since she closed her East Village boutique, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, about five years ago?

Clown porn.

Okay, not quite. The 42-year-old impresario of Judi Rosen New York is still designing her signature brand of high-waisted jeans for curvaceous women (she has outfitted the likes of Britney Spears, Tyra Banks, Mary J. Blige, and Chloe Sevigny). But she found a second calling after Kid Rock happened to spot her artwork at a group show at Max Fish.

“He called me at 2:30 a.m. and I always like to say that he was like, ‘I’m not really into art but this thing really spoke to me and I want to own it,’” she recalled over the phone today.

The depiction of two clowns in a ménage à trois was a precursor to the works that she created for her first solo show, opening at Fuse Gallery on Wednesday: Ms. Rosen draws images of clowns, manipulates them via computer, prints them onto fabric, and then stuffs them and sews onto them. The result, she said, has an air of “’70s weird clown porn.”  Read more…

Courtesy Garis & Hahn “March Sun, Addison Gallery” by Matthew Monteith, showing at “After the Fall.”

The Bowery lost an art gallery last summer, but it’s about to gain one back.

Mary Garis worked on the financial side of the Mary Boone Gallery, among others, but she didn’t even consider Chelsea when she and her fellow 28-year-old Christie’s Education graduate, Sophie Hahn, decided to partner in a gallery of their own. On Friday they’ll open Garis & Hahn at 263 Bowery, a condo building designed by Karl Fischer that also houses Takamichi Hair.

“We’re drawn to the experimental, fresh nature of the Lower East Side,” Ms. Garis said over the phone today, while doing some pre-opening shopping at Ikea.

Ms. Garis, who makes her home a half-block from the gallery at Bowery and Houston Streets (her partner lives in Battery Park), is well aware of the art scene blossoming around her. “I feel like this is a good time to start a gallery here,” she said. “There are lots of different kinds of galleries – you have the established Sperone Westwater and the thriving, hip The Hole and then there are smaller galleries sprinkled all over the area.
Read more…

C Ceres Merry

Good morning, East Village.

Neighbors and acquaintances gathered at a vigil for Raphael Ward, the 16-year-old who was gunned down near his home in the Baruch Houses Friday night. [Fox 5 News] His funeral is Wednesday. [The Lo-Down]

Friends describe the teenager as a “good kid.” [Wall Street Journal] He posted a mysterious Facebook update reading “I’m dead” hours before the shooting, which may have been over his winter parka. [NY Post]

Others in the neighborhood believe the shooting “could have stemmed from a simmering feud between youths living in the Baruch project and the nearby Riis Houses.” [NY Times]

A friend of the victim reiterates that “these projects and Baruch, we’re targets to all these other projects. They don’t like us.” [WABC]

Responding to criticism from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the public housing authority says it’s on track to install security cameras at 85 developments by the end of the year. [WABC]
Read more…

A 16-year-old was shot and killed on the Lower East Side last night.

Raphael Ward was found shot in the chest at the intersection of Rivington and Columbia Streets at around 9:10 p.m., the police said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Hospital.

State Senator Daniel Squadron, who in October called for increased gun control after a shooting in Campos Plaza, tweeted that he was “heartbroken” by this latest incident and issued a statement reiterating the need to curb the “scourge of gun violence.”

“From stronger gun laws to improved safety at NYCHA developments,” he said, “we are reminded far too often that the time to act is now.”

The victim of last night’s shooting was a resident of the Baruch Houses, one of the public housing complexes that Mr. Squadron and other politicians say are in need of security improvements.

Sources tell the Post that, before collapsing, the teenager ran into a deli and said that a group had demanded his coat. There have been no arrests in the homicide case.

Daniel Maurer

Benjamin Shaoul has filed an application for renovations that will allow him to keep a controversial rooftop addition at 516 East Sixth Street.

The application, filed Wednesday, requests permission to renovate the five-story building and add a “new sixth floor.”

Of course, Mr. Shaoul already added the sixth floor, along with seventh-floor cabins, to the building in 2006. Tenants sued the Department of Buildings for issuing the permit for that construction, arguing that it violated the state’s multiple dwelling law and ran afoul of fire and elevator rules. The Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, among other opponents, argued that the extension corrupted the architecture of the 153-year-old tenement as well as the character of the streetscape. In 2010, the Board of Standards and Appeals ruled that the sixth-story addition could stay, but the seventh-story cabins had to go.

Last year, Mr. Shaoul requested a waiver from the Board of Standards and Appeals, to the chagrin of State Senator Daniel Squadron. In September of this year, the board voted to reinstate permits allowing the enlargement, according to the G.V.S.H.P.’s Off the Grid blog.

Which brings us to the latest filing.
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Ray Lemoine Harley Flanagan showing off his wounds in July.

Harley Flanagan, the original bassist for New York hardcore pioneers the Cro-Mags, no longer faces assault charges tied to a backstage melee at Webster Hall this summer. Initial reports about the July 6 incident painted Mr. Flanagan as a drugged-out madman wielding a hunting knife, stabbing and biting all in his warpath. Mr. Flanagan disputed that account to The Local at his pretrial hearing. We spoke to Mr. Flanagan over the phone after his case was dismissed this morning.

So what really happened?

The long and short of it: I got invited into to show by people I knew from the scene, wannabe thugs who I used to associate with (I’m not naming names) who brought me backstage under the pretense of squashing the beef with JJ [lead singer John Joseph] and the band. These guys then closed the door and jumped me. At one point I saw the door open and then quickly close again, and I knew they were keeping the door shut from security. At that moment I just saw my kids in my mind and did what I had to do to get out of that room alive. Read more…

Dana Varinsky

Long before there was the new Bettie Page store, there was Enz’s. Mariann Marlowe opened the pinup, rockabilly, and burlesque-inspired fashion boutique 34 years ago. “My store was a necessity that came from the scene,” said the designer. “I was hanging with Sid and Nancy, getting inspiration from Malcolm McLaren. Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Bette Midler — everyone in the scene was hanging out and coming by. That’s when it was on 49 Grove, and that didn’t last. We either died or we changed.” The store, which also had locations on St. Marks Place, the Upper East Side, and in the Hamptons, is now at 125 Second Avenue. We spoke to Ms. Marlowe, 55, about its evolution.

It’s hard to survive the punk-rock and rock-n-roll lifestyle as a person much less a business, how are you doing it?

I am always reinventing myself. My store was the first punk store in New York when we opened in 1978. I had just come from living in London and was very influenced there by the scene. I had all this creative inspiration and suddenly my clothes were in movies and on album covers. Debbie Harry, Joey Ramone, and Lou Reed were coming by and Andy Warhol was bringing me a copy of Interview Magazine to check out when it was just 18 pages! Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Nino’s, the iconic pizzeria that closed and then reopened with a new look, has been shuttered again — this time by the health department.

The pizzeria’s windows were papered over earlier today. Health department records show that it racked up 86 violation points (well above the 28 score that puts an establishment in danger of closing) during an inspection last week. Violations included food temperature issues, evidence of mice, and inadequate personal cleanliness.

When Nino’s reopened with a minimalistic look post-Sandy, a manager said “the place is going to be the same.” But last week a tipster reported evidence of change.
Read more…

Shelf Awareness A fan shows off a tattoo of Mr. Gaiman’s signature.

Neil Gaiman stopped into the St. Mark’s Bookshop for a so-called “ninja signing” yesterday, bringing a camera crew and a welcome sales boost with him.

According to Terry McCoy, a co-owner of the shop, Mr. Gaiman’s agent called last Thursday to set up the event, but the bestselling British author didn’t announce it to his nearly 1.8 million Twitter followers until hours before the 11 a.m. signing.

“He did it really to help us out, because he knows we’re kind of struggling,” said Mr. McCoy. “He’s a real prince of a guy.”

Several dozen people showed up to the crash signing. For those who missed it, the shop still has about two shelves of books signed by the fantasy and sci-fi novelist and screenwriter. “Perfect holiday gifts for people who like my books. Useless for anyone who doesn’t,” tweeted Mr. Gaiman, who has said the bookshop is his favorite in New York (he, in turn, is one of the store’s top sellers).

As for the camera crew following Mr. Gaiman, that’s a big secret. “I was told that it was confidential, whatever it was,” said Mr. McCoy.

Alexa Mae Asperin

After redecorated its dining room and garnering three stars from Bloomberg, Hearth is about to get some competition: East 12th Osteria, a fine-dining eatery serving cuisine inspired by northern Italy, is set to open at 197 First Avenue, directly across from the Italian veteran.

The newcomer at First Avenue and East 12th Street is owned by Roberto Deiaco, previously a chef at Palio and the Rainbow Room, and most recently the executive chef at Armani/Ristorante. Mr. Deiaco, a native of Dolomites, Italy, specializes in “modern interpretations of classic Italian dishes,” according to his Website.

His wife and business partner, Giselle Deiaco, a former journalist and wine educator, said the osteria would house a “green” kitchen utilizing induction heating, a method that eliminates grease and boils water twice as fast as gas or electricity would. She previously teamed up with her husband on a wine label.

The menu at East 12th Osteria will feature luxe touches such as truffles and foie gras, at “gentle prices,” Ms. Deiaco said. The restaurant is set to open Dec. 20.

Sanna Chu Construction was recently completed near
the intersection.

A young woman was in serious condition after being hit by a car on Cooper Square Sunday, the fire department said.

The incident happened near East Seventh Street shortly before 5 p.m. The victim, thought to be in her 20s, was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital with a head injury.

According to a reader who used our Virtual Assignment Desk to tip us off to the incident, the woman was struck by a cab.
Read more…

Dana Varinsky

Good morning, East Village.

More on the settlement between Bikram and Yoga to the People: the St. Marks studio “is working on a new sequence that will also be offered in a super-heated room and incorporate some poses from the sequence popularized by Bikram’s founder, Bikram Choudhury, but will also include other poses.” [City Room]

“A body was found on the tracks at the First Avenue subway station early Monday, officials said.” The man or cause of death has not been identified. [DNA Info]

A restaurant supply store that has been on the Bowery for 40 years has left for Brooklyn because the Bowery “was changing into high-end apartments, restaurants, bars and galleries,” according to a broker on the transaction. [Commercial Observer]
Read more…

Sasha von Oldershausen A student occupier embraces his friend after emerging from eighth floor.

After a week of sleeping on yoga mats, eating food cooked on hot plates and accepting pizza deliveries via floating balloons, the Cooper Union occupiers have left the eighth floor of the Foundation Building and are going global with their initiatives.

“The problems at Cooper Union strike a nerve with millions of others struggling with student debt, administrative bloat, and expansionist agendas,” said student organizer and occupier Kristi Cavataro during a press conference held outside the school’s Foundation Building.

The eleven occupiers who barricaded themselves into the Peter Cooper Suite saw daylight again as they congregated with community members, supporters and faculty to discuss their unmet demands and the bigger picture.
Read more…

Joann Pan Ame Ame

Shops on East Ninth Street are pulling an all-nighter and hoping to make back some of the thousands of dollars in business they lost in the weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

On Wednesday, at least 11 boutiques that usually close their doors around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. will encourage the after-work crowd to “Shop Until Midnight.”

Hurricane Sandy’s negative effect on business has been very well documented. Devorado NYC — a vintage store selling Emilio Pucci, Yves Saint Laurent and classic Dior — saw an extreme dip in sales after the storm.

Carmen Ruiz-Davila, who opened the store just five months ago, panicked when she noticed the slump. “I didn’t sell anything for three weeks, not a single thing,” she said. “After we regained power, people were not in the mood to shop; they were helping people in need.”

On Wednesday Devorado and other participating shops will offer special 30-to-40 percent sales on select items.
Read more…

Rev. Billy preaching.

As The Times and DNA Info reported, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, which we first told you about in March, opened on Saturday. The Local was there with cameras rolling, but before we show you our footage, here are some photos by Konstantin Sergeyev, a C-Squat resident who documented the museum’s recovery from Sandy.

MoRUS, at 155 Avenue C, is open daily (except for Mondays and Wednesdays) from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; admission is free.
Read more…

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: St. Mark’s Bookshop.

Jamie Larson Terry McCoy and Bob Contant.

St. Mark’s Bookshop might seem like an odd choice for this column: given all the to-do about its struggles with landlord Cooper Union, and its subsequent fundraising for a new location, it’s hard to say the store has been “quietly making it.” But last month, owners Terry McCoy and Bob Contant celebrated 35 years in business — and if that isn’t Making It, what is? In light of the anniversary, we spoke to Mr. McCoy about what the future holds. As it turns out, he has a new space in mind, and it’s right here in the neighborhood.

How did St. Mark’s Bookshop come about?

We were originally five guys who knew each other from working at a store on St. Marks Place called East Side Books and it was struggling. We felt like we could do a better bookstore so we opened our own. We didn’t have much money and borrowed a small amount. Read more…

Daniel Maurer Thankfully these weren’t stolen.

The East Village saw a spike in auto thefts last month, according to a police source.

The first theft, of a 1994 Honda Civic, was reported on Nov. 4, with another following on Nov. 16 and a third reported on Nov. 24. The three Hondas (two Civics manufactured in the 1990s and one Accord manufactured in the 2000s) were stolen from East Third and East Fourth Streets, in the area between First Avenue and Avenue B. The theft of models manufactured in this period was most likely for car parts, our source said.

While not a significant percentage of overall crime, the automobile larceny pattern “sticks out,” according to the source, because it is rarely observed. The police estimate that 70 percent of grand larceny auto cases are motorcycle-related. Three motorcycles were also stolen during the 28-day period.