Sandy Berger The view out of Sandy Berger’s window.

I’m not averse to bacon. I used to make it, on very rare occasions. But ever since the International House of Putrid Odors opened and its ventilation fans began pumping out the smell of recycled bacon through my bedroom windows, a mere whiff of it is enough to make me ill.

Last August, before IHOP opened on East 14th Street, two gigantic air conditioners suddenly appeared on its second floor roof (they must have been crane lifted). At night, when it used to be pretty quiet, they sounded like 100 antiquated air conditioners running simultaneously.

It took several 311 complaints before a Department of Environmental Protection inspector found them in violation of the law. The inspector told me he knew he’d be back once the restaurant opened: he predicted there would be odor complaints, and he was so right. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Outside of the shuttered restaurant.

Tables, chairs and old plates from Kate’s Joint were being tossed in a dumpster at the corner of Avenue B and East Fourth Street this morning. The For Rent signs are still up at the old vegetarian standby, which closed for good in April.

Stephen Rex Brown The sidewalk outside Fine Fare was a bloody mess Sunday morning.

Wondering why there was pool of blood outside the Fine Fare on Avenue C Sunday morning? Here’s your answer: One of the men injured during Saturday night’s stabbing in East River Park was arrested outside of the grocery store.

The neighborhood’s top police officer, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann (he was promoted from captain last week) confirmed the sequence of events, saying that the perp fled the park and was found at Avenue C and East Fourth Street. Initially, the police reported that only the suspect found at Fine Fare was arrested, but Inspector Cappelmann revealed that the 59-year-old “victim” ended up in handcuffs, as well.

“It was two people who are acquaintances. They got in a dispute in the park, wound up assaulting each other and both were charged,” Inspector Cappelmann said.

Meanwhile the blood, which was a hot topic of discussion on EV Grieve and Gothamist, has washed away in the rain.

Daniel Maurer

Not one but apparently two indie dramas about a restaurant owner and his wife are set to be filmed in the East Village – maybe even in your apartment.

Flyers posted in the doorway of 277 Tenth Street over the weekend indicate that “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” starring James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain, will be filming in the neighborhood for approximately one week between July 9 and August 31.

According to Variety, the film, written by Ned Benson, will actually be two stand-alone movies: one written from the perspective of the husband, and the other from the perspective of the wife.

The casting flyer informs locals that “we are currently seeking locations in your area for the film” without saying much more. If you think your bar looks like the type of place where a man would skulk into his beer while his wife goes back to college, you may be in business.

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Hope you had a good Howl! Festival. The Allen Ginsberg Project wishes the poet a happy birthday and notes that the flowering dogwood that was planted at St. Mark’s Church in 1999 is flowering in his honor once again. You can still enter to win a tour of the poet’s longtime East Village apartment by signing up for The Local’s free newsletter.

The Times reports that State Senator and gay rights champion Thomas K. Duane, whose district covers part of the East Village, will not seek reelection. “It’s not that Albany isn’t a lovely place, but it’s not home,” he tells The Times after 14 years of service. “I always knew that I was going to have another chapter in my life, and it’s time for me to start that new chapter.” Possible successors: State Assembly members Deborah J. Glick and Brian Kavanaugh, or Brad Hoylman and Corey Johnson, the chairmen of Community Boards 2 and 4.

The Times points out that a new Website, 1940s New York, has reprinted a real estate market analysis of New York based on the 1940 census. In it, the Lower East Side (as the East Village and its neighbor to the south were collectively known) is said to be in transition. “Its more than 100,000 foreign-born population gives the Lower East Side a tinge that is essentially alien,” reads the guide. “But the district is changing. It has lost nearly 40,000 foreign-born since the last census.” It goes on to note new parks and big housing developments. Read more…

Photos: Chris O. Cook.

The finale of Howl! Festival today was marred by intermittent bouts of rain, but the party never quite ground to a halt.

Rap and rock acts were the order of the day, with performances from Hip Hop Howl, Bear 54, and others. Male members of Deans of Discipline sported kilts for the occasion, perhaps as a means of acclimating the crowd to the drag queens who would be taking the stage at 5 p.m. Read more…

A man was stabbed in a playground in East River Park last night, the police said.

The 59-year-old was near FDR Drive and East Eighth Street at around 8:30 p.m. when he got in a dispute with another man. The argument escalated, and the victim was stabbed in the torso.

Police charged Conrado Speck, 50, with assault with a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon. The victim is expected to survive.

Photos: Chris O. Cook.

It’s Allen Ginsberg’s birthday weekend and today Tompkins Square Park was buzzing with art, dance, music, and, um, bouncy castles and face-painting. Yes: it’s Howl! Festival.

Chris O. Cook Bob Holman, a festival organizer.

Bob Perl, an organizer of the annual happening, told The Local it was created as a nod to the neighborhood’s abounding influence. “The idea was that the East Village mindset is not just tied to here,” he said. “It’s had effects in places like Kyoto. There are creatives who come out of here and they become part of the diaspora and there are some that remain here, but this is a great place for us to all gather, and an opportunity for everyone to come out at least for a few days a year to create the scene that was so potent and vital down here.”

Indeed, the festival drew many former East Villagers, including Susan Martin, who came back from her current home in New Mexico to serve as Howl!’s publicist. She was keen to emphasize that the festival raises money for Howl! H.E.L.P., created to provide emergency assistance to local artists. “Up until the time of Howl!, if you were a drag queen and you got sick, and you didn’t have health insurance, good luck,” she said. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

A cyclist collided with a cab at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 10th Street shortly after 7 p.m. this evening.

The cab driver, Abou Coulibaly, said the bike rider was heading east on 10th Street and ran a red light. When an MTA bus crossed her path, she tried to turn back and collided with the cab, which was going north on Fourth Avenue.

“Nothing happened to her,” said Mr. Coulibaly, who said he had been driving a cab for three years. “No cuts or bruises, but she was pregnant. I was almost to a complete stop but I bumped her a little bit.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer Original tilework from Ratner’s

The Met Foods on Second Avenue will soon be reborn as Metropolitan Citymarket, complete with photo murals paying tribute to Ratner’s and the Fillmore East. The new signage has already been installed, but it’s covered by a gigantic plastic tarp and won’t be unveiled until fall. That’s because N.Y.U., the building’s owner, is about to cast the store in the shadow of its scaffolding. But there’s something you can feast your eyes on in the meantime: original tilework from Ratner’s restaurant.

Michael Schumacher, who owns and manages the store with his brother Steven (their father, Sam, took it over in 1986), said the supermarket’s overhaul was long overdue. In 2004, he explained, he was told by N.Y.U. that the store’s lease wouldn’t be renewed, and its appearance went into decline. “They told us four years prior that we weren’t getting a lease in 2008, so it was the nail in the coffin,” he said.

But as stories in The Villager recounted, N.Y.U. eventually renewed the lease for 15 years after much public outcry and intervention from public officials (Mr. Schumacher said his rent was raised by 20 percent). That left the grocers free to revamp. In gutting the store, they found remnants of Ratner’s, the 24-hour dairy restaurant that once occupied the space. Its original tilework now gleams on either side of the front entrance. Read more…

Chris O. Cook The Baroness and entourage.

The annual NYC Fetish Marathon kicked off last night in the basement lounge of One and One with a “Beat & Greet” thrown by fIXE Magazine. “We are the new mainstream,” said Cary Monotreme, the impresario of the fetish-pinup photo mag. “There’s a nut commercial with a dominatrix in it. I don’t know how much more mainstream you can get.”

Indeed, the atmosphere was one of a convivial dinner party thrown by old friends – that is, if one could mentally adjust to the revealing PVC gear sported by nearly all attendees and the occasional bound-up transvestite getting worked over on a giant X-cross. Once in a while, a band of vanillas inadvertently stumbled downstairs and got scared off, but their squeamishness was unwarranted, according to top-hatted longtime scenester Dale Whysper. “If you talk to the bouncers,” he boasted, “they’ll say, ‘We have fewer problems at your parties.’” Read more…

Add Parkside Lounge to the long list of neighborhood mainstays that are soliciting donations to keep afloat. The East Houston Street bar seeks $10,000 to overhaul its performance space to include a new bar and better sound equipment. “With all the stuff that’s going on in the neighborhood right now, sometimes I get nervous. Some places have just completely changed their identities. I don’t want to do that,” operating partner Christopher Lee says in the video, filmed by the local fundraising company Lucky Ant.

The longstanding bar serves up cheap booze and an eclectic array of musical acts, much like Lakeside Lounge did before it shuttered at the end of April. Read more…

Vivienne Gucwa Last year’s Howl! festival.

Happy Howl! Festival, everyone. At 4:30 p.m. in Tompkins Square Park, Bob Holman, poet and beekeeper, will kick off the annual group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem, and to celebrate the bard’s birthday weekend, The Local is offering up something special: a chance to visit Ginsberg’s former apartment on East 12th Street with his longtime secretary, Bob Rosenthal, as your host.

Mr. Rosenthal recently shared some memories of his nearly two decades working alongside Ginsberg at 437 East 12th Street, and he’ll share more during an intimate chat in the poet’s old living room. (Naturally, borscht will be served.) All you have to do is subscribe to The Local’s newsletter and you could be one of five lucky attendees. And you’ll be getting East Village news and events delivered straight to your inbox daily, for free! Just sign up here. The contest ends June 15.

Plus, if you’re interested in writing for The Local, have suggestions for coverage, or just want to hear more about us, look for our table at Howl! Festival over the weekend. We’d love to meet you.

Daniel Maurer Nicoletta

Restaurant-construction voyeurs may have noticed a couple of new developments: the plywood that has long obscured Nicoletta, Michael White’s forthcoming pizzeria on the corner of Second Avenue and East 10th Street, came down yesterday. Today, a banquette was awaiting installation; a representative for the restaurant said it’s aiming to open in the next two weeks, pending Department of Buildings inspections and liquor license approval. “The chef wants to get in and make sure he gets to do some work as well,” said the rep.

Daniel Maurer Gin Palace

And over at Gin Palace, the forthcoming cocktail lounge from Ravi DeRossi of Death & Co., Mayahuel, the Bourgeois Pig, and Cienfuegos, antique-style lighting has just been installed over the mural that David Nordine is working on. A worker on the scene told The Local that the Victorian gin joint is aiming to open June 11.

Daniel Maurer Chef Carlos Chusan in the mirror.

Maybe, just maybe you noticed last night that yet another bonkers illuminated sign has joined the flashy Mediterranean Grill and Tapas signage on First Avenue? If not, do watch the color-changing magic in our video above. It’s enough to give the light show at Smokin’ Tattoos a run for its money.

The Turkish takeout joint opens its next-door tapas lounge at sundown tonight, and your first wine is on the house.

Late last night, while Chinese-Ecuadorian chef Carlos Chusan helped decorate the narrow dining room with Turkish and Moroccan trinkets, he told The Local he planned to serve “a little bit of everything for everybody, because the Lower East Side is American, Chinese, Polish, German – so there’s a little bit of everything.” As you can see below, the pan-Mediterranean menu includes nods to Mexico (quesadillas) and Ecuador (ceviche).

The 40-seat tapas lounge will be open from about 5 p.m. till as late as 2 a.m. on weekends. Care to see the menu?

Suzanne Rozdeba

Good morning, East Village.

DNA Info attended the historical plaque ceremony at Justus Schwab’s former saloon on East First Street. The Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, along with Phil Hartman of Two Boots, plan to install similar plaques at least once a year, and Mr. Hartman is hoping to commemorate the former home of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable at 19-25 St. Mark’s Place.

Speaking of Andy, The Times reviews “Jukebox Jackie,” based on the life of Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis. Charles Isherwood says that at times the new production at La MaMa “comes close to mimicking the foggy ramblings of someone on an intense trip,” but Justin Bond “most naturally embodies the Curtis who bloomed briefly before drug addiction felled him at the age of 38.”

The folks at the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative tell us that on Sunday at 1 p.m., theater historian Cezar Del Valle will lead a tour of the East Village’s Yiddish theater district, once known as the “Jewish Rialto.” As part of the tour, an architect involved in the restoration of Village East Cinema will talk about the theater that opened in 1926 as The Yiddish Art Theater. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 on Sunday, and can be reserved here.  Read more…

Clayton Patterson Jessie Mac

At 23, Jessie Mac is one of New York’s youngest curators. Tonight at 9 p.m., her third show at Gathering of the Tribes, “’93 Til Infinity,” closes with a party featuring a screening of “Captured,” the 2008 documentary about photographer, curator, and local historian Clayton Patterson. The exhibition features Mr. Patterson’s early-90s photos of the Lower East Side amid floor-to-ceiling graffiti work by Mint&Serf of the Peter Pan Posse art collective. Ms. Mac spoke with The Local about working with Steve Cannon, the founder of Tribes who is fighting to hold onto the space.

How did you wind up as curator of Tribes?

I started working at Tribes a year ago as an intern when I met Steve Cannon. We cut a deal: if he taught me to curate I would dedicate my time to Tribes. It’s a non-profit so Steve is always in need of an extra hand. I never thought a blind man would be my artistic mentor, but I honestly would not be a curator without him. He taught me everything I know in the New York art scene. When people ask how he feels about not knowing what’s on the walls in his own space he says I’m his eyes. But I would have no direction without him. Read more…

Vivienne Gucwa The original. Nuff said.

Remember how the Hastings-Sunrise neighborhood of Vancouver spent $20,000 re-branding its business district as the East Village? Well, according to the Vancouver Courier, residents haven’t exactly taken a shine to the new name. Some think it sounds like “a reference to New York City instead of celebrating what’s indigenous to Vancouver,” and in a recent survey of more than 450 Hastings-Sunrisers (East Villagers?), 81 percent of them preferred the old name.

Of course, Hastings-Sunrise is hardly the fist to poach the monicker. An area of Des Moines, Iowa, was renamed the East Village sometime around 2000. Todd Dorman, a columnist at The Gazette who was there when it happened, notes that the move “drew plenty of derision. Common reactions: ‘Can’t we even think of our own name?’ ‘Do we have to steal one from New York?'” But that isn’t stopping the City Council of Cedar Rapids, a couple of hours from Des Moines, from naming a flood-damaged commercial area of the city the West Village. (The Gazette has the story today.) Read more…