Photos: Tim Schreier

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.

Daniel Maurer

If you’re looking for something to do tonight, tomorrow, or Sunday, the 36th Annual Ukrainian Festival, featuring over 100 performers, is now in full swing next to St. George Church on Seventh Street between Second and Third Avenues. Find more info here, and if you take photos, add them to our Flickr group.

Philip Ross The swarm capture on Wednesday.

Before Bee Week concludes here on The Local, we should mention that Timothy O’Neal, the beekeeper who tends to the bees on the rooftop of the 308 Bowery, got back to us today to tell us why exactly he thinks the bees that swarmed near Bleecker Street on Wednesday likely came from a neighboring hive rather than those belonging to Bowery Poetry Club owner Bob Holman.

According to the beekeeper, swarms don’t leave a hive until developing queens are properly nursed and are a day or two from emerging as adults. “When I inspected his hives, I found signs that they were preparing to swarm by creating queen cells, but that they were not far enough along for the swarm to have departed, and the population density was very high,” Mr. O’Neal wrote in an e-mail to The Local.  Read more…

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…

Shira Levine

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here are two of them: Village Kids and Foot Gear Plus.

While in high school, Tony Scifo worked part-time for a shoe guy. In 1980, at the tender age of 19, he bought Foot Gear, the shoe shop across the street at 131 First Avenue. Two and a half years ago, he and his big sister Linda Scifo-Young opened Village Kids, selling children’s kicks just a block away at 117 First Avenue. Ms. Scifo-Young used to work in corporate real estate, so she wasn’t scared of going into business during a financial crisis. “As a real estate broker, I knew that the only time I could get a decent lease for the second store was when the market was bad,” she said. The Local spoke to her at Village Kids about whether her gamble paid off.

What influences your business the most?

The funny thing is that in actuality we’re in the weather business. If the weather cooperates, we’re good. If it’s cold when it’s supposed to be cold, then we have a good season. If it’s hot when it’s supposed to be hot, then we have a good season. If any of those things don’t work, you have no season. This year was hard with how the weather cooperated. Read more…

The East Village lost one record store this month and is losing another, but several remain. The Local visited a couple of them, A-1 Records and Turntable Lab, to talk to DJs from the spin-centric “I Love Vinyl” party, which celebrates its third anniversary at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village on May 26. Watch the video to hear why vinyl will never die.

Photos: Philip Ross

Police were called to the area of the Chase Bank on Bowery around 1:30 p.m. today, but not because of another robbery: in a tree in front of the bank was a watermelon-sized cluster of bees.

A group of about 20 bystanders congregated near the taped-off tree between East First Street and Bleecker Street, snapping photos of the teeming, light-brown mass sagging from the tree branch. Some grumbled about the bees receiving so much attention (a squad car, a police van, and an emergency service vehicle blocked a lane of traffic).

Sans protective gear, a beekeeper called in to remove the swarm climbed on top of the emergency vehicle and, with a pair of hedge trimmers, cautiously removed the branches around it.

When it came time to extract the swarm, a police officer joined the beekeeper on the roof of the emergency vehicle. He extended a white Styrofoam box directly underneath the swarm as the beekeeper cut the branch that supported the mass. A lid was placed over the box. A couple of observers clapped in approval.

Watch our slideshow to see the drama unfold.

Stephen Rex Brown Capt. John Cappelmann

At last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council, Capt. John Cappelmann shared the latest on the early-morning shooting on May 12. “The guy didn’t wait for police,” Capt. Cappelmann said of the 29-year-old who took himself to Bellevue Hospital after being shot in the lower right leg. “Usually that means they were up to no good in the first place.”

He added that the victim is “no surprise. He’s known to us very well.” Surveillance cameras captured people fleeing the scene following the shooting, and police officers are dedicating manpower to preventing retaliation for the incident.

While that investigation is ongoing, Capt. Cappelmann singled out a few notable collars and said that crime in the neighborhood has decreased overall by 13 percent in comparison with the same 28-day period last year. Here’s a roundup of recent arrests and other items of note. Read more…

Ria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

To kick off your day, dig Joey Ramone’s new posthumous album, currently streaming on Rolling Stone’s site. Pyramid Club and Save the Robots, the legendary after-hours on Avenue B, get shoutouts in a song with the chorus “I’m proud to make my home in New York City.”

Speaking of gritty hangouts, Bowery Boogie has a look at Max Fish’s new Asbury Park outpost. Needless to say, the blog has an opinion about what’s more punk rock, skee ball or pool tables.

Commercial Observer reports that Edward Minskoff, who personally invested over $100 million in equity in his 51 Astor Place office building, is closing in on a deal with its first tenant: “Hult International Business School is in talks to take 51 Astor’s entire second floor, a roughly 55,000-square-foot space. Sources say the school could pay rents that begin in the $60s per square foot but escalate to around $100 per square foot over the life of a long term lease at the roughly 400,000-square-foot property.” Read more…

Lauren Carol Smith The former Van Tassel and Kearney Horse Auction Mart.

A building that served as an auction block for some of the city’s finest steeds around the turn of the century and decades later the studio of artist Frank Stella is now protected for the ages.

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission today voted to designate the former Van Tassel and Kearney Horse Auction Mart building at 126-128 East 13th Street a landmark, essentially preserving its exterior as-is. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer

No, the Coen Brothers aren’t back in the neighborhood, but some vintage cars are. French actor and director Guillaume Canet is filming “Blood Ties” at Odessa (and the “travelers” who’ve been asked to leave their normal spot outside of the restaurant aren’t too happy about it). Previous shoots for the remake of French thriller “Les Liens Du Sang” took place in Brooklyn and Harlem: The Daily Mail published photos of Clive Owen mounting a motorcycle as well as kissing co-star Mila Kunis during one scene and getting married to her in another.

According to IndieWire’s Playlist blog, the crime drama, set in 1970s Brooklyn, also stars Billy Crudup, Zoe Saldana, James Caan, Noah Emmerich, Matthias Schoenaerts, Lili Taylor and Domenick Lombardozzi, and is the story of two brothers on either side of the law: “the younger of two brothers (Crudup) is asked by his older brother (Owen) to return to the underworld in order to help the family out.”

It’s uncertain which of the stars was on the set today, but one thing’s for sure: the Cesspool Man was large and in charge. Click on photo above-right.

Stephen Rex Brown The State Liquor Authority committee of Community Board 3.

Last-minute negotiations between East Fifth Street residents and the owner of the Standard East Village paved the way for the hotel’s overhaul on Monday.

The famed hotelier Andre Balazs and members of the East Fifth Street Block Association presented Community Board 3’s State Liquor Authority Committee with a series of stipulations marked up with fresh ink before formally presenting the plans for the hotel formerly known as the Cooper Square Hotel.

The sticking points of negotiations were the concepts of “undetectable” sound versus noise that is “un-disturbing to neighbors,” according to Stuart Zamsky, an officer with the East Fifth Street Block Association. In the end, the association won the former. Read more…

The Tompkins Square Park and Playgrounds Parents’ Association (the group behind last summer’s uproar over the rats in Tompkins Square Park) is deciding how to address concerns such as “reduction of pigeon/rat feeding, sand box cleanliness and increasing the number of garbage cans on the Avenue A side of the park,” according to a Facebook post. Meanwhile, a tipster spotted a flyer in the park for a missing 16-year-old who “likes parks and street musicians,” according to the notice.

Ralph Ginsburg Coca Crystal

The first thing on Jackie Diamond’s to-do list: “2008 – Publish book.”

“You see I’m behind schedule,” the 64-year-old said of the unfinished work, her chest purring with laughter. “I got busy with cancer.”

Ms. Diamond is better known to students of the underground as Coca Crystal – a secretary, writer, and “Slum Goddess” for The East Village Other who went on to host a cult cable-access television show for nearly two decades.

In 2006, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Since then, she’s had three operations to remove over a third of her lungs, undergone chemotherapy, and become a patient at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. The last time her cancer returned, her doctor told her it had spread to a part of her lung that was inoperable.

Her to-do list continues: “2010 – Movie based on my life released. Drew Barrymore stars as Coca Crystal.”

“And then the dignitaries and the party,” Ms. Crystal imagined. “And then I’ll live happily ever after. Finally.”

But the real reason she wants to publish her book isn’t the dream of a movie deal – it’s Gus. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba A police car outside of the Wald Houses after gunshots back in January.

A man walked into Bellevue Hospital with a gunshot wound to his right leg around 1 a.m. this morning, the police said. The victim refused to provide a description of the person who shot him in the vicinity of Avenue D and East Sixth Street, due to what a police spokesperson said was his uncooperative nature.

In January, gunshots were heard in the same area near the Lillian Wald Houses, a month after a 19-year-old was shot in the leg further up Avenue D, in the courtyard of Campos Plaza II.

Know anything else? E-mail us.

Update | May 13, 7:45 p.m. Captain John Cappelmann said the shooting was “the result of an unknown dispute. We don’t have a solid motive at this point.”
Asked whether it was gang-related, he said, “That’s one angle that we’re looking at.”

Daniel Maurer

The former home of Dana Falafel Shawarma Deli will be offering falafel again – and flavored tobacco, as well. In the next weeks, a hookah lounge will open in the modest storefront at 45 First Avenue, near Third Street.

Stu El-Boghdedy, the manager of the forthcoming Aziza (a girl’s name meaning “beloved” in Arabic) gave The Local a sneak peek into the 35-seat lounge decorated with Moroccan lanterns, fabrics and poufs. In addition to Egyptian water pipes, he said, he’ll be serving light appetizers such as hummus, falafel, grape leaves, and eggplant salad as well as non-alcoholic drinks such as Turkish coffee, mint tea served in ornate teapots, and salep, a sweet, hot milk drink.

Mr. El-Boghdedy said hookahs would go from $12 to $35 or $40, which raised the question: why are water pipes at the East Village’s numerous smoke dens so expensive, anyway? Read more…

The city’s Landmark Preservation Commission will consider whether to designate the former horse auction house at 126-128 East 13th Street a landmark on Tuesday. The former Van Tassell & Kearney Auction Mart “is one of the last remaining in the city that was constructed for staging horse auctions,” a commission spokeswoman wrote in an email. The building also served as sculptor Frank Stella’s studio and was the subject of much lobbying by preservationists when developers revealed plans to replace it with a seven-story building in 2006. (That plan fell through). The vote on the auction house was originally slated for June 26 — the same day as the vote on the larger 330-building historic district in the neighborhood — but was moved up due to a packed agenda.

Stephen Rex Brown Ducks Eatery will open in the old Resto Leon space on East 12th Street.

The chef from the trendy ping pong bar Spin plans to open a new creole barbecue and seafood joint on East 12th Street in the next four to six weeks.

Crispy pig ears, yakamein (a New Orleans noodle soup), shellfish, braised pork spines, and peppercorn briskets injected with cachaca and apricot preserve are all planned for the menu of the new restaurant, called Ducks Eatery.

“We’re diving hardcore into the creole and barbecue thing,” said chef Will Horowitz. “It’s pretty wild, the flavor profiles we’re doing.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer Workers removed kitchen items today.

Friend House, an Asian restaurant and lounge that brought in a weekend party crowd, has closed amid a bankruptcy filing, lawsuits, and mounting debt. The deathblow came Monday when a city marshal turned possession of the space over to the landlord.

The eatery at Third Avenue and 13th Street applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last June, court papers show. At the time, it cited $675,995 in liabilities, including over $491,200 in rent arrears, more than $86,206 owed to Renaissance Development Corp., and smaller debts to food and wine vendors. According to papers filed last week, the company also owes about $87,000 to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and about $24,000 to the city Department of Consumer Affairs. Read more…