Tonight should be a big one at the Bowery Poetry Club: The second of Urbana Poetry Slam’s four semifinal rounds starts at 7 p.m., and the flow is going to be fierce. Six of the season’s top slammers – who won Tuesday-night competitions earlier in the year – will be competing to go on to Urbana’s finals in May, where all four semifinalist winners (along with four wild cards) will get a shot to continue on to the National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C. Also performing tonight is Rachel McKibbens. She won’t be competing, having already earned her stripes as an eight-time National Poetry Slam team member, but as a big heavy on the scene, you’ll want to check her out.

In the meantime, watch The Local’s footage of a recent slam to find out what it takes to get to the semis.

PKSB Architects The original and final proposals for a rooftop addition to the Puck Building.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission finally approved a rooftop addition to the Puck Building today, concluding a four-month process that resulted in numerous rejections of numerous designs.

The owner of the landmarked building at Lafayette and East Houston Streets, Jared Kushner, expressed his pleasure with the outcome, which only came after four other designs were rejected by the commission.

Michael Natale Puck.

“I am very pleased with the results. We got an extension approved that allows us to go forward with a special project,” said Mr. Kushner, who owns the New York Observer. “The additions to the building will further enhance one of the most iconic buildings in the world.”

Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the commission, said that the latest design would not amount to a drastic change to the Puck Building.

Commissioner Michael Devonshire, an architectural conservator, said, “They’ve reached the target of minimalism in terms of massing.”
Read more…

Last month, The Local introduced you to the owners of the East Village Cheese Shop, Tibetan refugees who attend rallies in support of their homeland’s independence and regularly send funds to their family there. The Cheese Shop isn’t the neighborhood’s only link to the Himalayas: Just a block away at The Three Jewels – the Buddhist community center at 61 Fourth Avenue – a lama and some of his students are raising money for the neediest inhabitants of Nepal. Read more…

A former D.J. is working on a documentary that she hopes will give voice to the “trailblazers and self-proclaimed misfits” that made up 1980s nightlife culture.

Sheba Lane came of age between her mother’s apartment in the South Bronx and her father’s place on East Third Street. She left the East Village in 2009 after her family had been in the neighborhood for 70 years, but she’s now producing a film that she hopes will harken back to an era when Tompkins Square Park “looked like war-torn Beirut” and when at Pyramid Club nearby “every square inch was packed with power.”

In a video promoting the “Fifteen Minutes Project” on fundraising site Indie GoGo, Walter Cessna, a writer, stylist, and photographer, recalls how “in 1981 you couldn’t walk past First Avenue without being in a posse of ten people.” Belinda Becker, an activist and dancer, remembers a time when “the East Village was filled with all these strange, crazy characters that were completely inspiring.” Read more…

Video games aren’t just sold in the East Village, they’re also set in it! The Lo-Down reprints a piece that originally appeared on Review Fix, about video game designer Dave Gilbert. The East Village native has created games like “The Shivah” (it’s set mostly in coffeehouses in Tribeca and the East Village and “follows a grieving Rabbi around the Lower East Side in an effort to save his struggling synagogue”) and “The Blackwell Saga,” which “follows a psychic detective and her spirit guide all over the East Village solving mysteries.”

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

According to The Times, Julian Schnabel wasn’t the only boldface name at his daughter Lola’s opening at The Hole last week. Courtney Love, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, Salman Rushdie and John Ahearn also showed up. As The Local reported last week, some of Ms. Schnabel’s paintings were first shown during The Hole’s whirlwind tour of Miami earlier this month.

DNA Info chats with Eileen Johnson, the director of Little Missionary’s Day Nursery on St. Mark’s Place (one of the oldest nurseries in the city) and the author of “The Children’s Emotional Bill of Rights.” The new book is based on her philosophy that “children need to be respected. Their boundaries need to be respected.”

Crains reports that 255 East Houston Street, near Suffolk Street, is on the market and could go for between $250 and $300 per square foot, depending on whether the buyer wants to build a condo or rental. Read more…

You may have noticed a new crew selling Christmas trees in front of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery this year. Roger Francis Baust – who took the spot over from his friend, Daniel Lamey, after the French-Canadian was prevented from crossing the border to sell his trees – died in September at the age of 64. Now Joseph Schommer of Brooklyn and Edward Chin-Lyn of the East Village are working around the clock to sell 700 trees they cut down in West Virginia last month. Watch The Local’s video to find out how the Tree Riders, as they call themselves, snagged the coveted spot on Second Avenue.

Daniel Maurer

A judge fined the owners of IHOP $2,000 for soil on the roof of the restaurant and garbage bags and boxes obstructing an exit, court documents filed earlier this month show.

The ruling from the Environmental Control Board — a court that adjudicates violations to the building code — notes that the issues have been resolved. The soil on the roof, which may have come from a neglected rooftop garden, even resulted in a stop work order that has been lifted.

Meanwhile, Borough President Scott Stringer and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez sent a letter to the owner of the IHOP on 14th Street last month asking him to remedy issues regarding odors and noise from the restaurant’s rooftop equipment before going before a judge as “a good faith gesture to the community.” Read more…

Following parts one and two of The Local’s holiday gift guide, here are ten options for your geek of the week.

Above:
1. Earbud cuff, $88.00 – Patricia Field (302 Bowery)
2. Terracycle motherboard coasters, $12.99 – Sustainable NYC (139 Avenue A)
3. 3-D drawing pad, $8.75 – Exit 9 Gift Emporium (51 Avenue A)
4. Voltaic solar-charging tablet case, $399.95 –Sustainable NYC (139 Avenue A)
5. Invader ring, $60 – Patricia Field (302 Bowery) Read more…

Photos: Noah Fecks.

On the northern fringes of Avenue A, an intriguing storefront stands out amidst the taverns, slice joints, and coffee shops. Its façade is blank except for a built-in 1950s-style television that for years has played loops of video art, and its front door is usually open into the wee hours of the morning, offering a view into a cluttered wonderland of doll’s heads, figurines, dioramas, paint tubes, disco balls, 3-D artwork – even a tank of mice.

“What is this place?”, many a bar-crawler has asked.

For twenty years, 202 Avenue A has been the workplace of M. Henry Jones, an artist and animator who, among other things, is on a quest to advance and computerize a form of 3-D photography that was pioneered in the late 1950s but has now fallen mostly out of favor. Next month, he’ll have to vacate the studio, as new tenant has offered to pay nearly four times his rent. Read more…

If you want a piece of Mars Bar, now’s the time to ask. As you can see in video shot this morning, the wall separating the old dive from its neighbor has come down, and construction workers are clearing away wooden beams.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, the 7-Eleven that had been slated to open on the Bowery last week was accepting deliveries this morning. A worker on the scene said it would finally open this Friday (an early Christmas gift to the East Village?). We’ve asked corporate headquarters for the official word.

Have your own photos of the Mars Bar’s demise? Add them to The Local’s Flickr pool.

Lit has announced that its holiday party, tomorrow at 9 p.m., will double as a benefit for Jonathan Toubin, the promoter, D.J., and “beloved fixture on the New York nightlife scene” (per East Village Radio) who was recently hospitalized in Portland, Ore. after being pinned by a taxi cab that crashed into his hotel room. We’ll add this to our holiday events calendar; in the meantime, see the flyer here.

Good morning, East Village.

The Observer reports that on Sunday, a “Charas Comes Home For The Holidays” demonstration in favor of turning the former P.S. 64 building into a community center ended in “at least three arrests and numerous confrontations.”

Meanwhile, The Local’s contributor Tim Schreier took the above photo at the march against Trinity Church. You can see more of his photos here. The Times reports that at least 50 people were arrested at demonstrations on Saturday and quotes Matt Sky, an Internet consultant from the East Village, as saying, “Everything about this movement is momentum. We need to show people that we are still relevant.”

The Post reports that a man has been arrested for three muggings, including an incident in which he allegedly followed a woman into her East 12th Street apartment at 2:30 a.m. Read more…

This afternoon, on what happened to be the three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, swing dancers and jazz bands “occupied” the platform of the Second Avenue subway station as vintage subway cars traveled from the station to Queens and back. Levys’ Unique New York Tours, which offers tours such as “Jewish Gangsters of the Lower East Side” and the “The Bowery Punk Rock Pub Crawl & Walking Tour,” coordinated the festivities along with the N.Y.C. Swing Dancers and N.Y.C. Balboa Club. As tea and cookies were served, Susan Keyloun, a contributor to The Local, shot the videos above and below. (She also took photos that you can find in The Local’s Flickr group.)

The M.T.A.’s vintage trains will make their final appearances at the Broadway-Lafayette and Second Avenue stops, among others, next Saturday. Read more…

I was born in the East Village in the 1940s and lived here for most of my life. I was active in the East Village cultural scene, and tried my hand at acting and stand-up comedy for a time. When I started using photography as a medium of expression, it became second nature for me to document local history through my lens. Today, I host a public access TV show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (M.N.N.) called “Harvey’s Earth and Beyond,” and many of my ideas for my show come from my performance days in the East Village.

I shot this photo of William Kunstler rallying at Cooper Union. He was one of the most celebrated civil rights attorneys, having headed up the A.C.L.U., defending the Chicago Seven, the Black Panthers, etc. He was a master at public relations, especially with the press. I believe this was one of his last appearances before he passed away.
Read more…

At an opening at The Hole this evening, Lola Montes Schnabel (daughter of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel) will present what’s described as her first solo painting exhibition in the United States, “Love Before Intimacy.” Earlier this month, Danny Gold, a contributor to The Local, followed The Hole’s charismatic founder, Kathy Grayson, as she showed off Ms. Schnabel’s paintings at the N.A.D.A Art Fair in Miami Beach.

Lauryn Brooke Kathy Grayson.

While the big-money crowd flocked to Art Basel in Miami Beach earlier this month, a crew of downtown New York upstarts gravitated toward a younger alternative. At the N.A.D.A. Art Fair, the names on the gallery walls weren’t as well known, but the faces were familiar to anyone who had spent a good amount of time at Max Fish. (The art bar on Ludlow Street is just a handful of blocks from The New Art Dealers Alliance’s offices on Chrystie Street.)

Kathy Grayson, 31, owner of the Hole, was one such familiar face. Her gallery at 312 Bowery leads the pack of D.I.Y. art spaces that have recently opened up downtown. Raised in Washington, D.C., the Dartmouth graduate got her start as a receptionist at Deitch Projects, a duo of SoHo spaces that were among the most influential galleries of the last decade.

After Jeffrey Deitch left Manhattan to run the M.O.C.A. in Los Angeles, Ms. Grayson set off on her own. Her new gallery has hosted an impressive array of up-and-coming artists as well as its share of debaucherous opening parties.

N.A.D.A. was no different: Ms. Grayson produced four big events during the long weekend, and sold art out of two identical booths staffed by Dee and Ricky Jackson, the wunderkind designers for Marc Jacobs who happen to be twins. The name of the stands? “Déjà-Booth.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Firefighters outside of Lil’ Frankie’s.

A fire in the walls at Lil’ Frankie’s, on First Avenue near First Street, was extinguished this afternoon before anyone was injured, firefighters said.

“It would have been a good fire in about 45 minutes if people hadn’t smelled it,” said Battalion Chief Steve Deloughry.

Twelve trucks and 60 firefighters arrived at the popular pizzeria at 21 First Avenue at around 2:10 p.m. after a resident on the third floor smelled smoke. Mr. Deloughry said that his crew “poked around for a while” trying to find the source of the smell, and at times suspected it was just coming from the wood burning oven at the restaurant. Eventually, firefighters did find the fire behind the ceiling and walls near the oven, and declared it under control at around 4 p.m.

An employee at Lil’ Frankie’s said the pizzeria will be open, but that as much as half of the dishes on the menu may not be available.

From zombies to yogis and from guitar orchestras to boom-box symphonies, the East Village has plenty to keep you (and the kids) in good cheer this holiday season. We’ll add more events as we hear about them – feel free to tip us off.

Courtesy of Merchants House Museum

SATURDAY, DEC. 17

“Tinsel Tunes by the Tinseltones”
Enjoy a century-worth of Christmas classics from the 1840s to the 1950s performed by members of the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society. 7:30 p.m. Merchant’s House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street near Bowery, 212-777-1089, http://merchantshouse.org/calendar; $30.

“Christmas in NickyLand 2011”
Nicky Pariso will host a weekend of performances at one of the neighborhood’s only holiday cabarets. Special performances by Poor Baby Bree, David Cale, Ellen Fisher, Jon Kinzel & Vicky Shick, John Heginbotham, and many more. Saturday, 10 p.m.; Sunday, 5:30 p.m. The Club at La MaMa, 74A East Fourth Street between Bowery and Second Avenue, Second Floor, http://lamama.org/the-club/christmas-in-nickyland-2011/; $15.

“KIDS! Holiday Foods from Around the World”
Children ages 2-14 can learn the stories of Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa through food at this event at Whole Foods. Young chefs will learn how to make popular dishes like potato latkes, chocolate eggnog floats, and African coconut cake. 12 p.m., different age groups start at different times. Whole Foods Market, 95 East Houston Street at Bowery, http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=224428; $30. Read more…

Yesterday, The Local shared some ideas for cheap gifts around the neighborhood. If you’re up for spending a little bit more for the man of – or men in – your life, today’s your day.

Above:
1. “Walls Notebook,” $16.95 – Exit9 Gift Emporium (51 Avenue A)
2. Bear shoe horn, $32 – Odin (328 East 11th Street)
3. Raw leather belt, $90 – Oliver Spencer (330 East 11th Street)
4. “Hang Over” flask, $50 – Reason Clothing (436 East 9th Street)
5. 100% baby alpaca queen-sized quilt, $525 – Seyrig (305 East 9th Street)

Read more…