What’s more disconcerting, Anthony Bourdain in a priest’s outfit (Grub Street now has video footage of “Father Anthony” at the aforementioned Big Gay Ice Cream Shop opening) or David Chang modeling a down jacket for Uniqlo? The Times has a look at the Japanese retailer’s new ad series, featuring Mr. Chang (described as a “staple of goodness”) as well as another man who is synonymous with the East Village, John Leguizamo. The Momofuku chef-owner is busy as ever these days: He’ll also be appearing with fellow Villager, Padma Lakshmi and others at the September 13 installment of the Moth reading series, “Moth Eaten: Food Adventures in Epic Proportions.”
EV Grieve notices that the house at 331 East Sixth Street (said to date back to 1852) has been demolished, to the outrage of a few neighbors. The city’s “What’s Going On Here?” sign has been colorfully tagged (anarchy symbol and all) by someone upset about “the destruction of an irreplaceable historic building.”
The long weekend was rife with shootings, and the East Village was no exception. A man and woman shot a 24-year-old man in the stomach on Saturday morning and were arrested at the Second Avenue subway station, the police said.
A NYPD spokesman told The Local that the victim was at Third Street and First Avenue at 3:45 a.m. when the duo shot him, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The spokesman did not explain if there was a motive for the attack.
The police apprehended the two suspects — a 34-year-old man from Vinegar Hill and a 26-year-old woman from East New York — on the platform of the F train. Both were charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
Good morning, East Village. It was a busy holiday weekend, so let’s get right to it.
First, a sign in the door of Ave. A Mini Market indicates the mysteriously shuttered deli will return after a renovation.
Over the weekend, a local lounger, Heryk Tomasini, set up hammocks at Astor Place, Houston Street, and some other East Village and Lower East Side spots. According to Bowery Boogie, two of them were promptly stolen. Meanwhile a more renowned public artist, Chico, painted a new mural on Houston Street (EV Grieve has a photo), but was upstaged by actor-comedian Jim Carrey, who according to the Post “tried his hand at tagging yesterday by spraying the outside of a multimillion-dollar East Village home.” Contact Music says the home was Mr. Carrey’s own.
When he’s not the stage manager at the Jekyll and Hyde Club theme restaurant, Peter DeGiglio is the host of a theatrical talk show, “The Skinny,” in which he riffs on the week’s local and national news and gabs with fellow actors, writers, and comedians. Think of him as Jon Stewart, but not on television, and with more obscure guests (past personalities have included comedian Rusty Ward and political commentator Sally Kohn). When The Local heard that Mr. DeGiglio was bringing his act (previously at The Tank) to the Kraine Theater on East 4th Street, we asked him to ply his skills on some recent East Village stories. Watch as he tackles the Tompkins Square rats, Ryan Gosling, Dov Charney’s restaurant, and more. Is this man ready for prime time? You tell us.
We’ll see you Tuesday, and have a lovely Labor Day weekend.
“The Skinny” at The Kraine Theater (85 East Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue) on the first Wednesday of every month, beginning Sept. 7. Tickets $10. Visit www.horsetrade.info or call 212-868-4444.
Cyn Darling Ariel Palitz with Darryl McDaniels from Run DMC.
Ariel Palitz, the owner of Sutra Lounge and a member of Community Board 3, chatted with The Local about misconceptions about hip-hop, honoring the legends, and the return of CB 3 meetings. This evening Sutra will host a “Strictly Old School” hip-hop extravaganza featuring the Cold Crush Brothers and Grand Wizzard Theodore on the turntables.
Q.
So what’s going down tonight at Sutra?
A.
It’s “Strictly Old School” — a new series we do once or twice a month. We decided to get the old school emcees into the DJ booth. Darryl McDaniels from RUN DMC was here – that blew everybody away. He did like five Run DMC hits. It’s such a tight community that other artists show up. Kangol from UTFO came up and sang “Roxanne Roxanne.” Slick Rick was here. Melle Mel got on the mic. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownTommy McKean points at the air conditioner that keeps him up at night.
Last week, a city inspector validated what a group of residents in a 13th Street building had said for over a month: that a ventilator unit on the roof was too loud.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said, “The kitchen equipment made more noise than is allowed by the provision that sets a standard in decibels and our readings.”
Now, the management of the Hamptons Marketplace deli that uses the unit must go before an Environmental Control Board in November, where a judge will levy fines (generally from $560 to $875) if it’s found the business is not in compliance.
But Tommy McKean, a resident who lives directly below the ventilator is not satisfied, and raised the possibility of picketing outside of the deli at First Avenue with his neighbors should the equipment on the roof continue to whir. Read more…
Grub Street has the story on why Avenue C bar Teneleven closed only to reopen recently — a neighbor complained about live performances involving flaming Hula Hoops. The bar’s co-owner says she can’t even fit Hula Hoops in her place, much less light them on fire.
As a bassist for the indie and art rock group Les Savy Fav, Syd Butler wasn’t satisfied simply touring the globe. In 1999, he founded Frenchkiss Records so the band could release its own recordings, and has since launched the careers of Passion Pit, The Drums and Local Natives. These days, he divides his time between the Lower East Side, where he lives with his wife and two children, and Frenchkiss headquarters in Union Square. Having lived in the area for a decade, Butler says he feels most at home on downtown’s east side. “There’s so much creative energy and the history is really supportive of the arts and expression,” he explains, though that doesn’t necessarily make hometown audiences the easiest to perform for.
“New Yorkers’ expectations are higher,” he says. “When you play New York you’ve got to give it your all.” Expect all that and more when Les Savy Fav perform at the Music Hall of Williamsburg’s 4th Anniversary Celebration on Tuesday, September 6. Until then, on to Butler’s favorites! Read more…
U.S. Department of AgricultureA package of hot dogs that contained glass shards, according to a federal food inspector.
If you’re stuck in town this Labor Day weekend without so much as a roof to grill on, wipe that hangdog look off your face: Maggots, worms, metal, plastic and even a razor were just a few of the objects that horrified callers said were in their hot dogs in complaints lodged with the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 2007 and 2009.
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Back in 2009, this reporter filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the U.S.D.A. to give up its dirty-dog logs. The 64 case files finally came in this week, just in time for the holiday! Consider them food for thought if you’re planning to grill during these last dog days of summer.
The documents (viewable here) tell numerous cringe-inducing tales of foreign objects disrupting all-American meals. Band-Aids, a rubber glove, and even a lock washer (used to secure a bolt) are all described in snappy detail.
One report told of a “winged insect that resembled a dragonfly inside the package of hot dogs,” and noted that the insect’s “head, eyes, and wings are visible. Insect is black in color, over 1-inch long.” Read more…
Jay HukahoriIntersection of West Broadway and Grand Street, after the storm.
Good morning, East Village.
Three weeks after his attack, Gavin DeGraw talks to AOL Music Blog about what he calls “a rumble in the Bronx but it was Manhattan.” He says, “I guess some people could walk away from [it] and could be like, ‘Forget New York, I do so much targeted toward adding to the New York scene and it didn’t love me back,’ but I really don’t have that attitude about it.”
Earlier today we reviewed “Limelight,” a film about the travails of club king Peter Gatien, who owned Palladium on East 14th Street (now an NYU dorm). Now Angelo Fabara recounts manning the door at Mr. Gatien’s most infamous club, Limelight, when he was a 18-year-old NYU freshman.
I started working at Limelight in 1992 (my freshman year at NYU) after two promoters from Bay Ridge, Mark Anthony and Michael Francis, spotted me dancing at an afterhours at Tunnel. They invited me to hand in a weekly guest list and offered to pay a commission for every person I got into the club. Around the same time, another club promoter, Alan Sanctuary, who was transitioning from Goth parties to raves, saw something in me and paired me with Sidney Prawatyotin, to tend the VIP ropes to The Chapel in the back of Limelight. Sidney would later appear in “Kids” and was mutual friends with Chloe Sevigny, a regular on the scene. He now runs a downtown fashion PR agency. Soon enough, I became a regular doorperson manning the VIP ropes of the main room’s life-size House of Cards. It was as cool a job as a 18-year-old NYU journalism student could have. Read more…
I Love EV spotted Kim and Kourtney Kardashian exiting the Healthfully Organic Market on East 4th Street earlier today, with a phalanx of paparazzi outside to greet them. Apparently the sidewalks were also clogged over at the not-so-healthful Crif Dogs this afternoon, where Gothamist heard about “a line out the door.” No celebs involved, though: customers have been cashing in a Scoutmob coupon for a free hot dog today.
It’s not quite sweater weather, but as nights and mornings get crisper, fashion is making the transition with light cover-ups. The button-up shirt is one example: We’ve seen it paired with a summer sundress or with shorts and tights. Denim, chambray and white linen (some of our favorite looks) maintain their shape best when worn as outerwear. With extra material, the button-up can be tied in a knot and worn over a dress or longer skirt. See how Villagers are sporting them on the street.
Many students moving into NYU’s Palladium dorm this week likely had no clue that their new East 14th Street address was, until 1998, home to a notorious nightclub of the same name. Now a documentary by Billy Corben, director of “Cocaine Cowboys” (a cult-hit chronicle of the Miami drug scene in the 1980s) revisits the era when the club was a fixture of New York City nightlife, and when its owner, Peter “King of Nightlife” Gatien, was at the heart of two dramatic court cases that represented a larger fight between the hedonism of the late eighties and the Giuliani-induced law and order of the mid-nineties. Read more…
So let’s hear it for the greatest writer ever to live in the East Village. What’s that, you say? James Fenimore Cooper? Leon Trotsky? William S. Burroughs? Allen Ginsberg?
Hmm. No offense to the above authors, but surely you jest. The greatest writer ever to settle in the East Village, a transatlantic literary god whose appearance was as unexpected as that hawk showing up in Tompkins Square Park, was the English-born poet, W.H. Auden, who lived at 77 St. Marks Place from 1953 to 1972. In 1917, Trotsky had edited a dissident newspaper in the same building. The painter Larry Rivers was already living there when Auden and his lover, Chester Kallman, moved in. And the man who had previously occupied their railroad apartment was an abortionist. For neighborhood “color,” you can’t top that.
The coming month is a big one in Auden’s posthumous career. (He died in Vienna on September 29, 1973.) And this fortnight, in which we will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, will also be a 10th anniversary of sorts for him. Seventy-two years ago today, he began writing his aphoristic, agonized, and intensely lyrical meditation on the outbreak of World War II, “September 1, 1939.” It was composed shortly after he moved to New York with his pal Christopher Isherwood (“Berlin Stories,” “A Single Man”), and 62 years later, a few days after Mohammed Atta & co. brought down the Twin Towers, the poem took on a second life among the smart set on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more…
The Times profiles Taavo Somer of Freemans and Peels, who is opening Isa in Williamsburg, and reveals that the so-called “patron saint of hipsters” is “getting sick of New York. Yes, one of downtown’s most imitated tastemakers of the last decade is itching to leave the very place where he made his mark.”
Those flashy “jeggings” that rapper Lil Wayne wore at the MTV Music Video Awards? The Daily News discovers they were created by an East Village designer, TrippNYC.
According to The Post, two teenagers and a 21-year-old were arrested for sneaking into an East Fifth Street apartment around 2 a.m. on Sunday and making off with an iPod, iTouch, and some cash. Read more…
If you’re seeing this post a little after 7 p.m., then you’re watching David Simon, creator of “Treme” and “The Wire,” do his thing at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. If you missed the live stream, check back here soon for an archived video of higher quality.
A day after Lost City looked back at Charles Ignatius Pfaff and the bastion of bohemianism he operated at 653 Broadway (Walt Whitman, for one, penned an unfinished poem about the place), Grub Street looks inside The Vault at Pfaff’s, an homage to the 19th-century beer cellar that will grand open over at 643 Broadway next week.
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.
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