Photographer David Schmidlapp shares photos (his own as well as a couple by Marlis Momber) from the archives of El Jardin del Paraiso on East Fourth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D, where he has volunteered for nearly 30 years. His work can currently be seen in the Nepenthes New York Gallery on 38th Street.

Marlis Momber The garden in the winter of 1982 or 1983.

They demolished a lot of buildings in the neighborhood around the mid-1970s. This is how it looked east of First Avenue back then. You could see all the way to Seventh Street, and from Seventh Street you could see all the way to the Con Edison plant. There was plenty of parking back then. Read more…

Ajay Naidu uses his St. Marks Place apartment for more than just people-watching: It’s prominently featured in the actor’s directorial debut, “Ashes,” which screens tonight at the New York International Latino Film Festival. The walk-up (Mr. Naidu’s home since 1995) is where the character he plays, Ashes, tends to his schizophrenic brother, Kartik (played by Faran Tahir of “Iron Man” notoriety) and where Kartik awkwardly courts a similarly troubled woman, Bettina (played by another East Village resident, Piper Perabo).

Mr. Naidu said that he decided to set “Ashes” in the East Village circa 2006, in part because at the time “there was a vast dichotomy of wealth distribution that made it possible for people to slip through the cracks.”

Add to that, the character of the neighborhood: “There was a more personal feeling to the Village,” said Mr. Naidu. “It felt more like a neighborhood as opposed to a place where a bunch of young rich people came and bought a piece of the charm.” Read more…

If “Lines” doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, ArtsBeat has posted reviews of a couple of other local productions. Andy Webster ponders “Le Gourmand, or Gluttony!”, a “fanciful operetta about the 18th- and 19th-century food critic Grimod de la Reynière”; and Jason Zinoman thinks that, owing to the “majestically silly” performance of Harriet Harris, “Yeast Nation (the triumph of life)” could be the Fringe Festival‘s next breakthrough hit à la “Urinetown.”

K.L. ThomasEmily Bennett, Jeff Sproul, Annelise Rains and John Hardin in The Horse Trade Theatre Group’s “Lines”

When was the last time you went to a play where you were asked to sign a petition to release a political prisoner before getting to your seat? “The play deals with human rights, so it makes sense that we would be here,” the woman from Amnesty International explained to me. “The script is very powerful.” With these words and director Heidi Grumelot’s introduction emphasizing the play’s interest in social justice, “Lines” was framed: I was ready to have my mind blown by some political theater.

And yet, if I hadn’t been told the play was about human rights, I’m not sure I would have known.

“Lines” is set in an imaginary country where an actual line has been drawn, segregating blacks from whites. On one side of the line is white funeral director Doc; on the other is Bullet, a black football coach. Their lives get intertwined in scandal when a young black man, Keys, dies on the “white” side. Doc’s decision to bury Keys, which breaks the town’s segregation laws, leads to a series of mix-ups and subplots — some funny, some somber. Read more…

Courtesy of GiGi La Femme

Since 2008, East Village audiences have been entertained, even seduced, by the monthly burlesque show “Revealed” at UNDER St. Marks Theater. This Wednesday, the show will come to an end so that producer and performer GiGi La Femme can pack her bags for Nashville after three decades in New York City. (“Not only do I love Nashville,” she explained over e-mail, “but I’ve got a super wonderful man and puppy named Milo waiting for me when I get there.”) Here she reflects on how she started in burlesque, what she’ll miss about the Village, and her plans after the curtain falls.

How did you get your start?

It was in February of 2004 when I saw my first burlesque show with my cousin, Scarlet Sinclair. Shortly thereafter, Scarlet began her journey within the blossoming BurlyQ scene and I tagged along for the ride, supporting her at every show I could get my bottom to. Read more…

Last week’s episode of “Louie” stopped into East Village Wines, and last night’s episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” had an East Village arc, too. Sort of.

Early in the episode, Larry visits Veniero’s, the 115-year-old pasticceria on East 11th Street, and takes a loaf of Italian bread to Suzie’s dinner party “around the corner.” (You’ll forgive the grainy and inverted screen grabs.)

Funny thing is, an establishing shot shows the dinner party isn’t around the corner at all. Doesn’t this avenue look suspiciously like Central Park West? Read more…

Jay Sullivan A scene from “Yeast Nation,” part of the month-long Fringe Festival starting this evening.

You’ve already been told about “Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin’ Rock Opera” and “Theater of the Arcade: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage,” but where the 15th Annual Fringe Festival is concerned, that’s just the start of the kookiness. A few weeks ago, we received a whopping 87 press releases for the festival, which throws its opening party tonight. We combed through them to find lines that alone are worth the price of admission.

Whale Song or: Learning to Live With Mobyphobia: “Only Maya Swan knows why Molly the whale is stranded in the Hudson River. Maya knows Molly has come to deliver a message from her dead father (whose body was found sprawled nude on the back of a killer whale at Sea World). But what is the message?”

Killing John Grisham: “Follows aspiring author Josh’s quest to escape his minimum wage life, derailed by self-doubt, girl problems and loyal friends with violent tendencies. Did we mention the world famous author who steals Josh’s book? That too.” Read more…

Ai Weiwei and Clayton Patterson aren’t the only photographers whose portraits of the East Village in the eighties are getting new attention— The Villager notes that Arlene Gottfried’s photos of 1970s and 1980s Loisaida (a time and place that Marlis Momber also documented) are featured in a new book. “Bacalaitos & Fireworks” captures “the age of tube socks and tight gym shorts, disco and Menudo, the neighborhood’s abandonment by landlords and everyday arson.”

At the 23rd annual Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion last Saturday, activist John Penley urged the crowd to join him after the show for a protest outside of the Economakis house, to be followed by a “takeover” of the BMW Guggenheim Lab and maybe even a riot outside of the former Mars Bar. “We need to drive the property values down,” Mr. Penley implored. The riot never happened, but video shows that Mr. Penley did manage to suck down an illegal smoke at the BMW Guggenheim Lab and lead an expletive-laden chant of “Who’s art space? Our art space!” But was he right to target the BMW Guggenheim? Clayton Patterson, a fellow veteran of the 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot whose work will be shown at the Lab later this month, thinks not. Read more…

Lyn Pentecost, Executive Director of The Lower Eastside Girls Club, came across what some fashion lovers might consider the ultimate Craigslist find: 50 never-worn vintage wedding gowns, each with its original price tag. Looking to purchase one or two last fall, Ms. Pentecost contacted the seller (a lawyer representing the estate of a wealthy woman) who told her it was an all-or-nothing deal— 50 dresses for $2,500. She declined at first, only to hear back from the lawyer a few months later with an offer of $500 for the entire lot.

Within weeks, two boxes arrived on her doorstep stuffed with mint-condition gowns—garments that a group of teenage girls have since ripped, cut, and spray painted, putting an individual, modern twist on fifties style. Read more…

Gothamist has a nice long chat with Alex Gibney, director of “Magic Trip,” now playing at Cinema Village. The film documents Ken Kesey’s legendary 1964 road trip to New York. At the time, Allen Ginsberg, who makes an appearance partying with Jack Kerouac, was living at 704 East Fifth Street. “Ginsberg is still on fire,” Gibney says of the footage, “You can see him; just exploding with vitality and ideas and charm. Kerouac is a broken man at that point.”

Christina Jean Chambers A scene from “Ambrosia” by Kelley Nicole Girod.

A pair of upcoming plays at the Red Room aim to turn notions of “black theater” upside down.

“Ambrosia” (about an elderly southern woman deciding to die happy) and “Breakfast” (about a middle-class black family dealing with a gay son) will run as a double feature starting August 10.

Both playwrights said that they sought to avoid the clichés of their genre. Read more…

In the bars and restaurants of the East Village, immigrant workers, many undocumented, toil behind the scenes cooking food, waiting tables, and doing whatever else they can to keep the nightlife abuzz. Felipe Baeza is one of them. He serves food and drinks in a hopping East Village restaurant. For Mr. Baeza, 24, the job was to be a mere stepping stone into an exciting art career, which was to begin three years ago when he graduated with a degree in art from The Cooper Union.

But Mr. Baeza, who as a young boy left Mexico for the United States, doesn’t have a work visa or Social Security number, so he cannot legally work in the U.S. Under current federal law, the jobs he studied to perform are not available to him because of his status.

As Mr. Baeza looks from beyond a bar lined with moist beer bottles and cocktail glasses, he sees his classmates finding success in the art world, at home and abroad. In a word, he is frustrated.

“My options are very limited,” he said. “I couldn’t work in a print shop. I couldn’t even assist an artist.”
Read more…

Alain Levitt isn’t the only East Villager praising Café Mogador’s Moroccan eggs today. Playwright Adam Rapp, who lives on East 10th Street and is a big fan of the Juice Press that recently came to his block, tells Grub Street everything he’s eaten over the past six days, and the eggs are his “favorite breakfast.” Mr. Rapp’s latest, “Animals and Plants,” just opened at the Gershwin Hotel.

Diner’s Journal reports that Philip Kirschen-Clark, previously of Jimmy’s No. 43, has left his latest post as chef of Vandaag, the Dutch-inspired restaurant that received two stars from The Times in September but hasn’t managed to become a hot spot: “They wanted a more neighborhood approach but I prefer doing more elaborate food,” explained the chef. In a review of Vandaag posted on At the Sign of the Pink Pig last month, Kim Davis, who is also Associate Editor of The Local East Village, observed (astutely, it turns out) that “the food gave off a ‘not really trying’ vibe”: “I felt I ought to eat there more often, just to show some support. Unfortunately, when I did so, I wondered whether I had left it too late. Chef Philip Kirschen-Clark was present; he didn’t seem in the best mood when he visited a nearby table.”

Meghan Keneally The new restaurant will be at 78-84 Rivington Street, located on the corner of Rivington and Allen Streets.

The owner of Frank, Supper, and Lil’ Frankies, along with a business partner, are opening a new Italian restaurant called Sauce on the corner of Allen and Rivington Streets in early October. In addition to a dining room, the space will feature a grocery section as well as a demonstration kitchen that will host cooking lessons.

Last year, Frank Prisinzano, who runs three restaurants in the East Village, and Rob DeFlorio applied to open a fourth restaurant on Second Street and Avenue A. Citing the high number of restaurants in the area and the noise levels, the community board resolved not to support their application for a liquor license.

“They were right,” Mr. DeFlorio said about the decision. “We got excited because the place was two doors down [from Supper] and it was available. We jumped the gun.”

Upon going back to the drawing board and finding the space on Rivington, they were approved for a beer and wine license from the board immediately. The new restaurant, set to open on October 4, will be the first of Mr. Prisinzano’s ventures to cross below Houston Street. Read more…

Scott Lynch

You can tell a lot from the language people use– as well as from the language they don’t use. An online visit to the “mobile” BMW Guggenheim Lab, which recently touched down on Houston Street and Second Avenue in all its up-to-the-minute minimalist splendor, suggests that the “international, interdisciplinary teams of emerging talents” running it are engaged in the paradoxical task of trying to discover “innovative” solutions to intractable urban problems while thinking solely in clichés.

The Web site itself is of course cheery and bright, featuring lots of baby blues, the usual self-promotional videos, fussy graphics, things to click on, and, of course, an Internet letter box in which you – an ordinary citizen! – can post your radical visionary ideas about how to improve the city without even buying a stamp.

The economy is almost beyond repair, world banks are facing a meltdown, entire segments of the population have been served with their divorce papers by any and all employers, but the Guggenheim’s site is full of madly utopian visions such as that eye-catching poster in which all of New York’s major buildings are squeezed into the rectangle usually occupied by Central Park, while the rest of the island becomes a green, pristine forest – much as it was before those horrid Europeans arrived in their high-tech wooden boats. Yeah, that’ll work. Just watch out for the bows and arrows.

In a section of the Web site named “I Meditate NY” – a joke in itself – we read that “creativity is the font of innovation.” This is about as perceptive as stating that “sexuality is the mechanism of reproduction.” There’s a reason certain sentences such as “necessity is the mother of invention” stick around forever, while others barely make it to the end of the week. I think we can agree that “creativity is the font of innovation” belongs in the second category. It’s think-tank language, dead on arrival. Read more…

Courtesy of “Blogologues” The “Blogologues” production team from left to right: Assistant director Meredith Hackman, director Megan Loughran, co-producers Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula, and stage manager Jim Armstrong

When an online phenomenon escapes the bounds of the digital world and emerges IRL (in real life), bloggers are fond of proclaiming “the intertubes are leaking.” “Blogologues,” an upcoming show at Under St. Marks, will turn the spigot and let Internet culture gush out at full flow.

Each month, “Blogologues” will take real Internet postings on a theme and turn them into a stage show. And get this: The producers are taking suggestions from readers of The Local. Have any recommendable tweets, blog posts, even Craigslist ads? Don’t be shy. Leave them in the comments and they may end up being enacted on stage. Read more…

Lauren Carol Smith

In exactly an hour, at 6:15 p.m., The BMW Guggenheim Lab will kick off its film programming with a screening of Blank City. The Local talked with Paul Dallas, the project’s film curator, to see what’s in store for the neighborhood.

How does Blank City reflect the history of the neighborhood?

The film is really a document of the “No Wave” and “Cinema of Transgression” arts scene that happened in the East Village and Lower East Side in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the time when people were squatting in buildings, before the real-estate boom of the eighties, and the moment when artists could live in close proximity and foster this anti-establishment sort of art scene. It shows what was happening in music and art at the time through rich moments that have had an effect on artists and filmmakers since.

Read more…