Chris CaporlinguaAliee Chan (l) as the Real Girl, Scott Cagney (c)
as the Dog, and Tony K. Knotts (r) as Johnathon.
“Well. At least I can always kill myself,” says Johnathon, the everyman protagonist of “Claire Went to France,” at the beginning of Ben Clawson’s new play. His anthropomorphic dog ignores the comment and keeps watching TV, and his grandpa continues to play solitaire after complaining about “jokes about things that aren’t funny.”
Much of this play, which turns the cellar-like Under St. Mark’s into Johnathon’s living room and the prism through which we view his dreary life, is exactly that: Johnathon’s ex-girlfriend barrages him with spectacular insults from the closet, his dog tries to convince him to masturbate to waste time, and the grandpa, like some Judge of History, spews grand truths which contradict from moment to moment. Read more…
Daniel MaurerHenry Barrial (right) supervises camera set-up.
A little over a month after “Girl on the Train” transformed the former Mary Help of Christians school into an after-hours club, a film crew is shooting inside the church itself today. Henry Barrial, the director of “Some Body” and “Pig,” described his latest film, “The House That Jack Built,” as an “ultra low-budget” production about a young man who buys a tenement in the Bronx using money saved up from dealing drugs out of his bodega.
So how does Mary Help of Christians come into all this? Well, it’ll stand in as a church in the Bronx where a baptism takes place in the beginning of the movie and a wedding takes place at the end. Other scenes are being shot in Jackson Heights and the Boogie Down.
Mr. Barrial found the church through Caryl Pierre, a production coordinator on the “Girl on the Train” shoot who also recommended the church for this one. The director, who is Cuban-American, said the movie will star Puerto Rican up-and-comer E.J. Bonilla as well as Saundra Santiago, best known for playing Det. Gina Calabrese on “Miami Vice.” The screenplay was written by Joseph Vásquez, the Bronx-born filmmaker who wrote “Hangin’ with the Homeboys,” starring John Leguizamo, before he died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.
Mark Nickelsburg, a longtime East Village resident, will debut “Harry Grows Up” tonight at the inaugural New York International Short Film Festival at Sunshine Cinema. The 12-minute film is about a toddler, Harry (played by Mr. Nickelsburg’s son Lucas) who loses his babysitter (Elizabeth Elkins) when she heads off to college. The tot sinks into the kind of deep depression that results in empty baby bottles strewn about the house, leading narrator Josh Hamilton to quip, “I’m not the first heartbroken New Yorker to turn to the bottle.” But then along comes Zoey, a love interest closer to Harry’s age. Mr. Nickelsburg, 41, described the short as a “romantic comedy for adults, starring babies.” The Local spoke with him about filming his own son in the streets of the East Village.
Q.
One of the major characters in your film is the East Village. Was that intentional?
A.
Yes. The experiences that Harry is going through and some of the locations that he’s going to I drew from my own experiences. Like the storefront that figures prominently in the movie, that was around the corner from where I used to live. Moonstruck is the diner on Fifth and Second where Harry drowns his sorrows. I went there all the time. Read more…
Hermann the German isn’t the only pizza-parlor painter in the neighborhood. After doing the wall of The Bean’s forthcoming location (with an assist from Mosaic Man), Walker Fee scored a gig across the street. This past weekend, we spotted the muralist painting the facade of East Village Pizza. The owners, we were told, wanted to bring balance to the block. And apparently, Mr. Fee will bring still another mural to the block after this one.
Meanwhile, a block away on St. Marks Place, there’s a newish mural of “Mister Shoetree” on the side of Foot Gear Plus. The artist, Robert Gardner (a.k.a. Robare), brought it to our attention in the comments of our “Making It” interview with shopkeeper Linda Scifo-Young.
“Pool (no water),” by British actor, playwright, and journalist Mark Ravenhill, ends its run at the 9th Space this weekend. If you’re in town, you may want to make your out-of-town friends jealous by catching One Year Lease Theater Company’s production of the 2006 play tonight or tomorrow.
Envy, after all, is what this excellent work is all about. In it, a group of artists divulge the story of a friend who, having found the critical and commercial success they haven’t, invites them to her new mansion to party like old times. This friendship is called into question when she gravely injures herself from jumping into a pool with, well, no water.
The group sees artistic potential in their friend’s condition, which leads to thoughts of profit. They photograph her discolored body, even moving it into the light of the hospital window. Yet they insist (and not without credibility) that they still love her. Most shockingly, she starts to recover — and says she’d love to work with their photographs. Read more…
An “aerial circus,” poetry, burlesque, plenty of theater and even talk show legend Joe Franklin are part of this weekend’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.
The free festival, celebrating its 17th year at the Theater For The New City, starts on Friday and will feature outdoor performances on East 10th Street near First Avenue.
Other highlights include excerpts from productions by local institutions La Mama ETC and Horse Trade Theater Company, a film festival dedicated to the neighborhood, and a performance by the experimental dance group from the Children’s Workshop School. The theme for the over 100 participating arts organizations is “Legalize Freedom: Art as Activism.” Read more…
We’ve introduced you to the DJ and the musician. Know who else keeps the East Village popping? Linda Simpson, the self-declared “multimedia drag queen artiste” who with fellow legend Murray Hill hosts Monday Night Bingo at the Bowery Poetry Club. She tells The Local what it was like living in the East Village when it was the epicenter of New York City’s drag scene and clues us into some of her current favorite places to walk on the wild side.
Arts Beat has the latest on the lineup of bands scheduled to play the inaugural CBGB Festival July 4 weekend, including War on Drugs, a stable of New York bands and plenty of throwbacks like MxPx.
Local venues like Otto’s Shrunken Head, Lit Lounge, The Bowery Electric, Local 269, Webster Hall and Joe’s Pub are among the 30 that will host shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The Local has also discovered that the Upright Citizens Brigade will curate a series of “rock and roll comedy and improv shows” at the UCB East Theater. A new documentary, “The Rise and Fall of the Clash,” will premiere during the film portion of the festival. See ticket prices, film and conference lineups…
They’re the people that keep the East Village popping: yesterday we introduced you to the DJ. Today, meet the musician. On Ka’a Davis, a former squatter, discusses changes in the music and art scene over the three decades he has lived in the East Village.
Photos by Tim Schreier. Second photo: Veng. Third photo: Moise Joseph. Seventh photo: Sofia Maldonado and Carlo McCormick of Paper. Eighth photo: Mista Oh and Sofia Maldonado. Ninth slide, left to right: Chris Serrano, Mista Oh (Jerry Otero), H Veng Smith, Sofia Maldonado, Moise Joseph, Crystal Gonzalez, Robin Cembalest (editor Art News), Alicia Prieto
The group that scored a $5,000 check from street artist Retna has added a new mural to the East Village, and The Local helped make it happen.
Jerry “Mista Oh” Otero, who runs Cre8tive YouTH*ink, said that a resident of East Fifth Street, Liezl Van Riper, contacted him after seeing our piece about Retna’s donation, and asked his Gowanus-based organization to create a new mural for a wall that was once the domain of Chico.
“The wall directly across from her building was inadvertently painted by the city’s anti-graffiti program,” said Mr. Otero. “It was done by Chico – an outdoor scene of some sort. It was up for 10 years.” Read more…
Julia PasternakDiana Beshara as Cavale and Geoffrey Pomeroy as Slim in “Cowboy Mouth.” The roles were originally filled Patti Smith and Sam Shepard.
The building housing Lucky Cheng’s will get a “Sleep No More”-style makeover. “Cowboy Mouth,” a play written by Patti Smith and Sam Shepard during their whirlwind romance in a ransacked room in the Chelsea Hotel, will be revived in a room in which the audience sits on sofas next to needles, trash, liquor bottles and a drum kit. The roughly 25 audience members will even have to “find” the room by inquiring at the bar of Lucky Cheng’s and then being directed to an out-of-the-way set of stairs.
“It’s going to have an apartment-feel,” said Leah Benavides, the director. “There’s not going to be a definitive line between the audience and the stage. The audience is going to be really in it.” Read more…
Last week we clued you into the “I Love Vinyl” parties. Today, meet one of the DJs behind the parties, Jon Oliver, also the host of “The Main Ingredient,” Tuesdays from midnight to 2 a.m. on East Village Radio. This video kicks off a week-long tribute to the neighborhood’s Party People: the DJs, bartenders, waitresses, musicians, and drag queens who keep the East Village popping.
Laurie Gwen ShapiroHermann at Bagel Cafe & Ray’s Pizza
At Bagel Café and Ray’s Pizza, on the corner of St. Marks Place and Third Avenue, a mural depicts nearly 25 scenes of the East Village. One panel features Telly Salavas in front of the Ninth Precinct stationhouse. Another depicts Deanna’s, a popular early-90s jazz club on East Seventh Street that catered to bebop lovers on a budget. The largest of them, running across the entire back wall, is an East Village cityscape watched over by the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
And then there’s the one that includes a tranquil scene in Tompkins Square Park, also in the early 90s, when the park was shedding its scars from the riots. The signature at the bottom right of the panel reads: H Platschka. Next to the autograph, strangely enough, is a phone number.
Call that number and Hermann Platschka will pick up. He calls himself Hermann the German. The artist, “76-years young,” recently accepted The Local’s invitation to tell the story of the murals. Thickset, with a short-cropped beard, he arrived at the Bagel Cafe clad entirely in black, from his shoes to his beret to his black leather jacket to his black-framed glasses.
His tour started with the first panel he painted, of Gem Spa. “The East Village was a dangerous place then,” he said, pointing to a fair-haired night watchman standing outside the candy store: “The ladies’ favorite, a cop with movie-star looks. It was dicey then, and he was the law.” Read more…
The annual New York Dance Parade brought pretty much the entirety of the East Village over to St. Marks Place this afternoon to gawk at a colorful cacophony of fantastic attire, expert moves, and in the case of the Webster Hall float, scantily clad ladies escorting one of the parade’s grand marshals, DJ Jonathan Peters. In case you escaped to Rockaway Beach, where Caracas opened its boardwalk outpost today, these photos should give you an idea of what you missed. If you have your own shots, add them to our Flickr group.
There’s an air of serenity about Anna Sheffield as she works at a small desk in her studio on Lafayette Street. On a recent Thursday evening, the jewelry designer spoke to The Local over a cup of tea, away from the buzz of her workroom and kitchen, in a well-lit corner room filled with her designs, art books and warmly worn wooden furniture. Her hair was pulled back and tattoos of hearts, flowers and birds covered both her arms.
Ms. Sheffield started her Bing Bang line (available at Cloak & Dagger,Warm, and Reformation) in 2002 in San Francisco and launched her fine jewelry line, Anna Sheffield, (available at Love, Adorned and coming to ABC Carpet & Home in a couple of weeks) in 2007. Before that, she grew up Catholic in northern New Mexico. Her influences are evident in the Madonna, crucifixes and feathers that adorn some of her works. Read more…
Norman Isaacs, the owner and namesake of Norman’s Sound and Vision, said that he’s moving his record store from the East Village to Williamsburg because (you guessed it) his landlord is raising his rent.
The 65-year-old, who opened the shop at 67 Cooper Square in 1994, said that he received a call from the building’s management company, Levites Realty, informing him that his rent of $7,000 a month would go up to $11,000 once his 20-year lease expired.
“They called and said, ‘We’re raising the rent,’ and I said, ‘Can you come down at all?’ and they said no, and I said ‘I’m leaving,'” recounted Mr. Isaacs, who said his initial rent at the shop was around $4,000. Read more…
Gothamist catches wind of a Beastie Boys fan who’s organizing an “MCA Day” in celebration of the late Adam Yauch. No word on what exactly the May 19 event in Union Square will entail, or whether State Senator and Beastie Boys fan Daniel Squadron will be rocking the mic.
The New York State Senate has adopted a resolution honoring the late Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, drafted by State Senator Daniel Squadron. That’s right: it seems the advocate for greater community control in liquor licensing is a fan of “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)”
The resolution, adopted yesterday afternoon and reprinted below, notes (as The Times did) that the Beastie Boys had ties to the senator’s district. The group “became well-known in the innovative music scene in Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side with a sound and a style all their own,” it states, adding that the Beasties “exemplified New York through a period in which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street.” Read more…
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »
Chris Caporlingua Aliee Chan (l) as the Real Girl, Scott Cagney (c)
