Painting by Lucian Bernhard

Dentists are always memorable. Anyone who gets paid to poke around in your mouth is bound to be.

I have had two dentists in the East Village. The first was a man from the Indian state of Gujarat who chewed obsessively on the carcinogenic Indian palate-cleanser known as paan. I will call him “Dr. V.” He is gone now, put out of business after his landlord doubled the rent on his miniscule store-front clinic in Alphabet City. This was a minor tragedy for the neighborhood, for if you had a rotten tooth and no insurance – even no money – Dr. V was your go-to guy.

Dr. V had learned dentistry in India under what he called “the British system,” which he held in high regard, although his feelings about the British themselves were mixed. He was a man of small, delicate stature, about 60 years of age, and had lots of opinions and was keen to share them.

Most of the time, a dentist is someone to whom, by definition, you can only listen, not speak – your side of the conversation being confined to gagging sounds that you hope will not involve drooling. So it helps if the dentist is entertaining. (I did once have an East Village dentist – only briefly, thank God – who talked about nothing but the minutiae of politics in Albany. That was truly abysmal.)

Dr. V.’s conversational canvas was large, and he would lay down the law on every subject imaginable. But I felt he cared about me. He always gave me advice, seemed to look into my mind and soul as much as my mouth, and often he made me laugh – if not always on purpose. Read more…

Though she plays a high-powered studio exec on that most L.A. of television programs, “Entourage,” Constance Zimmer’s heart really belongs to the East Village. Ms. Zimmer — along with her husband, the director Russ Lamoureux, and their three-year-old daughter — divide their time between the West Coast, where work typically calls, and the East Village, a neighborhood that she feels “still has what makes New York New York.”

Here, she loves finding and frequenting “those little shops that have been there for years, and thrive because they’re local.” Though her sharp-tongued character Dana Gordon takes a bow along with the final season of  “Entourage,” look for Ms. Zimmer on the season finale of “Royal Pains,” and in the bawdy comedy “The Babymakers,” due next year. Until then, you just might find her at one of these favorite spots. Read more…

Tim Milk

With the threat of another recession looming large in the markets, I can’t help but recall another steep downturn, long ago; a terrible time when work was nearly nonexistent. By the summer of 1979 most young people were broke as a joke. But this was not true of a friend of mine, who will hereafter go by the name of “M”

Until M busted a move to help me out, I didn’t have a single prospect. But I had been told, in hushed and reverent tones, that M possessed a secret method of raising cash. M by and by revealed what it was, an absurdly simple scheme, diabolically clever. It involved selling all the joys and sorrows of the world for nothing more than pocket change.

It was the world of the newsboy. Read more…

David Godlis- A photographer and East Village resident from Marit Molin on Vimeo.

For over thirty years, David Godlis, a photographer who got his start shooting punk bands at CBGB, has lived in a fifth floor walk-up at 30 St. Marks Place. After Godlis (who goes by his last name only) moved into the apartment in 1977, a neighbor clued him into its unique back story: It was once rented by Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman. Read more…

(c)2011 Nanci Ezzo, All rights reserved.

According to the weather prophets it should have been raining but it wasn’t raining so I went to the Tompkins Square Library to see if I could get Vol. 1 of Proust, but they didn’t have any Proust, and probably never do have any Proust (“Who’s Proust?”), so I decided to take out another novel instead, only to realize I didn’t have a library card, a wallet, or any form of ID, unless you count a cell phone, which I don’t. I did have cash, though.

On to Mast Books, five blocks down Avenue A, but first I encountered… The Racist. A drably turned-out white woman in her thirties, looking like a hipster gone to seed, possibly a junkie. In fact I’d already passed her a few minutes earlier on the way to the library, where I heard her shout racial slurs at more darkly hued people than herself outside the deli on 10^th Street, but I wasn’t really paying attention, and frankly it just seemed weird. She looked like a dyed-in-the-wool East Villager. Down on her luck, maybe, but a characteristic member of the neighborhood nonetheless. It was almost unthinkable. Read more…

Kevin FarleyChess continues at Tompkins Square Park despite yesterday’s earthquake.

When I was growing up in California, earthquakes were kind of fun. You got to hide under your desk or in your doorway, and whether you were in sixth or second grade your teacher always freaked out and rushed outside to the baseball field without providing any instruction to the kids.

The feeling of a southern California earthquake was unmistakable; it rattled the house and shook you with quick jolts. My sister and I would drop to the ground to feel the earth move, because we knew the sweet and powerful force would not last long. I loved earthquakes – their unpredictability, their distaste for shelves, and their short lifespan prevented me from getting bored. My mother used to tell me that earthquakes were the same feeling as riding the subway, which is maybe why I moved here (she was wrong). Read more…

Ryan Gosling still hasn’t said anything about breaking up that fight on Astor Place, and whether it was all a viral stunt as some blogs suspect. Yesterday, E! Online got some details from the photographer who shot the footage (seems Mr. Gosling offered one of the men $20 to end the scuffle), but she doesn’t say when it all went down. UsMagazine.com, which also shares an eyewitness account, says it happened Saturday (when the video was uploaded), but EV Grieve readers spot a clue that they believe proves it occurred sometime before the Flaming Cactus displays went up on July 30. And with this, When Did Ryan Gosling Break Up That Fight? becomes a bigger mystery than Who Fought Gavin DeGraw? Update | 6:25 p.m. Valerie Herrera tells OMGICU that it happened June 24 and it wasn’t a stunt.

Ryan Gosling is no stranger to the East Village— he’s been spotted prepping for his role in “Blue Valentine” on East 7^th Street, chowing down with the fam at John’s of 12^th Street, and hitting up 16 Handles with his “Crazy, Stupid, Love” co-star Emma Stone. But he’s never done anything this conspicuous— Lainey Gossip found a video posted to YouTube over the weekend that seems to show the movie star breaking up a fight in the middle of Astor Place. Read more…

When rompers started appearing on the runway last spring, we thought they’d be on the clearance rack by now. But boy, were we wrong. In between the rain these last few days, The Local hit the pavement to scope out the East Village’s take on the trend. What we found: The one-piece is here to stay.

People are judging you everywhere you go. Do you have visible panty lines? Are you paying for that in all pennies? Who actually wears those shoes with individual toes?

You’d think in a world full of judgment, that at least the supermarket would be a safe place, but it isn’t. People are peering into your basket left and right and scoffing at your Muscle Milk or chocolate-covered edamame. You can tell a lot about a person based on what is in their grocery basket. I’m not sure what it says about me, but sometimes I look down at my own basket and all I see is various cheese products. While my basket clearly communicates that I like coagulated milk, most baskets tell more of a story about those who carry them. Here’s some baskets and their owners to avoid:

Bomb Shelter Bro (see photo above) – It’s good to date a planner, but dating someone who is always preparing for the next apocalypse is just a bad plan. A good test to know if they’re for you, is to picture them eating canned baby corn. If you’re still attracted to them, then you’re on your own on this one. Read more…

Presenting Neighborhood Appeal, in which Villagers share their go-to spots and we appeal to readers to add their own. Today, Chicago transplant Katie Olson tells us where she likes to take her out-of-town visitors. We’re adding her recommendations to Foursquare, because – that’s right! – The Local is now on Foursquare. Just click the “Follow” button on our shiny new page and every time you “check in” at spots like the ones below, you’ll get tips from notable locals like Rachel Dratch and Christina Tosi; and from our savvy and sundry commenters and contributors, like restaurant guru James Traub. After you’ve pondered Katie’s list below, make your own additions in the comments and we’ll add those to our Foursquare page, too.

I moved to the East Village from Chicago last spring and as soon as summer came around, so did the visitors. Before I knew it, I had the tour down: walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; have a picnic in Central Park; walk through SoHo, the West Village and Little Italy, etc. I still love exploring the city, but my favorite part of having friends visit is showing them the neighborhood that I now call home. The East Village has a lot to offer, of course, and I always make a point of trying new things with out-of-towners; but I do have a few staples I take most of them to. As you’ll soon notice, my friends never go hungry. Read more…

Don’s Mobile Records on Astor Place from Urmila Ramakrishnan on Vimeo.

Last week the Boston Herald reported that sales of vinyl are up— in fact, they’re on track to hit a two-decade high this year. Don Rieth knows this very well— for the past twelve years, he’s been selling LPs out of his minivan at Astor Place. Urmila Ramakrishnan reports.

Didn’t get your fill of bodega cats last week? City Room has an adorable gallery of them today, including a sleepy feline from the East Village.

Ross Bennett Lewis on capturing neighborhood creatives.

Silver Print / First Avenue, 1995

“Tompkins Square Park with the surrounding avenues and streets offer an endless milieu of unexpected finds. Photographing people is most challenging yet very rewarding. I admire people with creative energy and their endeavors. After losing so many people to AIDS in the 1980s, I was disappointed in not having taken wonderful black and white images of them, so by the early 1990s I resumed shooting in black and white, using analog cameras and film. Years later these photographs become historical, as they have a different texture than digital. New York City has an abundance of material to shoot, whether it be people, architecture or just recording the quality of light and city life.”
Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Dennis Mykytyn paid $3,000 for 100 phone numbers with a 212 area code.

Newcomers to the city are often burdened with area codes that advertise their rookie status like a scarlet letter. But few go to the drastic lengths of Dennis Mykytyn, who wanted a 212 area code so badly he paid $3,000 for 100 of them.

“It’s prestigious,” said Mr. Mykytyn, who runs a record label, Modern Records, in an office at Lafayette and East Fourth Streets. “When 212 is on your phone, everyone knows where that it is, and it means you’ve been around for a while.”

Mr. Mykytyn bought the 212 numbers in bulk in 2007 when he was moving his hedge fund from Westchester to 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He’s since closed the fund and now uses less than 10 of the numbers.

But he has no intention of selling the dormant digits. Read more…

Photo courtesy Christina Tosi

We wouldn’t expect anything short of an inspired list from the woman who has introduced “crack pie” and “cereal milk” to a passionate fan base in the East Village and beyond, and happily Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar does not disappoint. The pastry chef with a Willy Wonka imagination has worked in the East Village for over five years, and appreciates what she describes as the neighborhood’s “open mind and ‘don’t take yourself so seriously’ approach to things.” It’s a perfect philosophy for Tosi’s unexpected approach to desserts, which will soon be revealed in her first cookbook, “Momofuku Milk Bar,” out in October.

“I hope ours are recipes that carry people through bake sales, sleepovers and celebrations for years,” explains Tosi via email on a typically busy day in the kitchen. We certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a salty pretzel-studded Compost Cookie at the local potluck. In the meantime, on to Tosi’s favorites! Read more…