Liz Wagner Figurines in the window of Russian Souvenirs. Below: The shop’s storefront.

East Village boutiques are pretty quirky, but Russian Souvenirs, a small consignment store on 14th Street near Third Avenue has some of the most unusual finds in the neighborhood.

The dust-crusted window leads to a view of a chaotic array of Matryoshka dolls, which includes one that’s painted to look like Michael Jackson. There’s a line of Soviet military caps adorned with red stars hanging from stretched-out wire hangers, and a collection of wooden statutes whittled to look like bears posing in odd positions. A hodgepodge of war medals, army pins, dangly gold earrings, glasses without lenses, and swaths of fabric — 50 percent off, as advertised on a rumpled piece of paper taped to the front of the store, — complete the window display.

The spectacle has been known to entice passersby.

“I saw this sort of messy stuff in the window and it was interesting,” said Catherine Siemann, a Chelsea resident, who stopped to take a peek.

Inside, Russian Souvenirs is a hoarder’s paradise. It is packed floor-to-ceiling with stuff; more nesting dolls and military paraphernalia, Ukrainian eggs, paintings of Soviet landscapes, racks of dark-colored clothing. The only aisle is too narrow for two people to stand side by side, and the place smells like a grandfather’s coat closet that hasn’t been opened for quite some time.
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<Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

We woke up to soothing pictures of the willow trees of Avenue C, brought to us by EV Grieve. The tranquility was quickly broken by news of protest on East Fourth Street around the corner, where a group of protestors raised objections to planned alterations to the 170 year old houses at 326 and 328. DNA Info has the story and reporters for The Local are preparing their own report on the larger issues surrounding the debate.

It must be time for coffee.

The Quarterly Art Soiree began quietly on Sunday afternoon with sing-a-longs, button making and painting lessons. There were young performers, aspiring filmmakers, free popcorn and even a balloon artist all in the cellar space at Webster Hall on East 11th Street.

“They’re loving it, they’re loving it,” Pauline Vitale said of her two grandsons. “My little Cyrus has a speech delay so he’s really into the music. So he’s enjoying it. They’re having him play the squeezebox.”
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Robyn Baitcher Pizzas on display on the counter at Ray’s on St. Marks Place near Third Avenue. In July, city officials released a new cleanliness rating system for restaurants. Some of the revised grades for local pizzerias were released this month.

The East Village is home to myriad iconic late-night eateries, from 5 a.m. nachos on Avenue A to curry-sauced Belgian fries on Second Avenue. But for all our dining options, many of us share a common snacking obsession: The hot, cheesy pizza slice.

In July, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released a new cleanliness rating system for restaurants in New York City. Residents around the East Village have no doubt seen the department’s laminated cards – displaying letter grades of “A,” “B” or “C” – propped up in restaurant windows around the neighborhood.

Pizza shops in the area have had a tough time scoring well under the new system, in part because storing pizza slices on open display before reheating them can be a Department of Health violation.
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Liz Wagner Audience members at last night’s meeting of the State Liquor Authority committee of Community Board 3 listen as the panel refused to support a pair of license requests.

A Community Board panel Monday night refused to lend its support to plans to reopen two bars on Avenue A, despite pre-emptive efforts by business owners to smooth things over with East Village residents fed up with noisy nightlife in their neighborhood.

The State Liquor Authority Committee, which helps regulates liquor licenses in the East Village for Community Board 3, declined to lend its support to an application for the new space at 34 Avenue A, formally Aces & Eights, saying the area already has enough bars.

The committee also deflected a request from the owner of the former Superdive space at 200 Avenue A, explaining that the board had initially approved a license at that location for a bookstore or cafe. The State Liquor Authority subsequently permitted a change to let tenants apply for a liquor license, but the committee wants to stick with the board’s original decision.
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Jenn Pelly A newspaper distribution box designed by Adam Cole, the graffiti artist known as Cost. The piece is the first major public work in more than a decade by Mr. Cole, who has been largely inactive since a 1995 arrest for vandalism. Below: The reverse of the box.

A newspaper distribution box in the East Village now showcases the first major public work of art in more than a decade by one of New York City’s most infamous graffiti artists, Adam Cole, a.k.a. Cost. The work is a distribution box for Showpaper, the free New York newssheet that lists all-ages concerts throughout the tri-state area.

As one half of the graffiti duo Cost and Revs, the artist achieved mythic status in New York in the early ’90s graffiti world, for revolutionizing the wheatpasting medium and helping catapult it to a worldwide street art phenomenon.

The Cost-designed newsbox stands on Second Avenue at Houston Street, one of 12 Showpaper boxes redesigned last week by 25 notable graffiti and street artists at the Brooklyn art space Market Hotel. For Showpaper’s guerilla initiative, the newsboxes function as works of public art, with Manhattan and Brooklyn streets as their pop-up gallery. A map of locations is available here.

Mr. Cole, 41, has remained quiet since 1995, when he was arrested for vandalism. Then, The Times labeled him “New York’s most prolific graffiti-ist,” citing his arrest as, for some, “the end of an era.” Mr. Cole, of Rego Park, was 26. One irritated Times reader, however, wrote a letter to the editor saying: “The graffiti writer using the tag ‘Cost’ is probably the worst graffiti vandal in the history of New York.”

In their early ’90s unauthorized public art, Cost and Revs made use of the backs of “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs at nearly every intersection of Manhattan, with confusing slogans that perpetually included either the name “Cost” or “Revs.” (A 1993 Times piece on those curious, incognito Manhattan signs is available here.)
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Molly O’Toole Dumpling Man, 100 St. Marks Place.

Without dumplings, life would scarcely be worth living.

Like sweets made from boiled milk, sugar and something-or-other, dishes made from dough formed into a pocket and filled with meat or vegetables or soup give the people of East Asia, South America and Russia, to name only a neighborhood or two, something to look forward to. The same is true for the heterogeneous peoples of the East Village, a food-grazing and cheap-eats micro-climate extremely conducive to the production and distribution of dumplings, whether in Ukrainian, Mexican, Venezuelan or, above all, Chinese form.

In this regard, I am most partial to The Dumpling Man, a takeout and counter place on St. Marks Place between First Avenue and Avenue A, where the diner can watch a lineup of silent, dexterous Chinese chefs assemble his or her order before actually consuming it. The Dumpling Man, in the great East Village tradition, makes one thing only, and makes it with great care. You can get grilled or steamed shrimp, chicken, pork, vegetable or soup dumplings. Lucas Lin, the moon-faced, bespectacled owner, is enough of a New Yorker that he gets bored without a little variety, and so usually offers a special as well. Asparagus dumplings haven’t gone over too well, he concedes. On the other hand, water chestnut dumplings — prepared only when juicy water chestnuts are available in the market — have been a hit.
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Jenn Pelly Josh Korda meets with a participant after leading a meditation session at Dharma Punx, a free, walk-in meditation class that fuses the tenets of Buddhism and punk rock. Below: The Dharma Punx logo.

In late October, my stress levels hit an all-time high. I wanted to escape, but no fancy spa for me. Being the sort of girl who wears vegan combat boots and listens to Bikini Kill while steaming kale, I decided to hone inner peace at Dharma Punx. The free, walk-in meditation class fuses the tenets of Buddhism and punk rock every Tuesday at 7 p.m.

While some may question whether these sessions confuse achieving Nirvana with listening to it, participants note that there are common threads running between the Buddhist faith and the punk movement. Like Buddhism, punk music and lifestyles are centered on streamlining and simplification: three-chord Ramones-like song structures, straight-edge lifestyles, and Do-it-Yourself work ethics that cut out the middleman.

Led by Josh Korda, a tattoo-covered Buddhist Brooklynite with gauged ears, the 25-minute sessions at Lila Yoga, Dharma, and Wellness, 302 Bowery attracted a variety of practitioners. On that particular Tuesday night, a young beret-clad woman sat in front of me, and a grey-haired man in a yellow polo to my right, along with many tattooed 20 and 30-somethings. Mr. Korda opened wide the front windows, surrounded by tiny portraits of Buddhist gods, and in floated sidewalk sounds, cabbie screeches, and ambient New York noise.
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Samantha Ku David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, with a 1901 stereoview of the lower Bowery by H.C. White Co. (enlarged below).

In a closet off the bedroom of his East Fifth Street apartment, David Mulkins stores a treasure trove of old New York artifacts. Stacks of round film reels, piles of papers, photographs and old entertainment posters compose a shrine to the Bowery from the 1800s to the present.

“A lot of people, especially younger people, if they know the Bowery at all, they only know the period when it was known for bars and flophouses,” said Mr. Mulkins. “In the second half of the 20th century, the Bowery was home to some of the most important cutting-edge art that has come out of this country.”

Mr. Mulkins, a high school teacher and 25-year East Village resident, is the chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, which works to preserve the historic character of the Bowery.

The organization started three years ago to protest the construction of the 21-story Cooper Square Hotel, completed in 2009. “It’s completely out of scale, out of context,” said Mr. Mulkins. “It’s probably the most hated building in this area.”

Currently, the Alliance has a two-pronged approach to the Bowery’s preservation. First, it has submitted an application to have the Bowery included on the National Register of Historic Places. Owners of specific historical buildings would be eligible for tax credits and grants from the state and the city. However, it is not seeking landmark designation from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which comes with a variety of restrictions, said Mr. Mulkins.
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On a nice day, it is not uncommon to hear a soulful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” resonating across Alphabet City. A regular at Tompkins Square Park and an East Village resident, Giuseppi Logan continues to play his saxophone well into the fall season. But, it might soon be too cold for him to perform.

During a break between songs, Mr. Logan told The Local East Village that he will continue to man his post near Ninth Street and Avenue A as long as the weather is tolerable.

Many of the New Yorkers who walk by know nothing about Mr. Logan’s legendary career. A well-known free jazz musician in the 1960s, he has played with his fair share of “cool cats,” such as John Coltrane, Don Pullen, Eddie Gomez and Milford Graves. After a mysterious decades-long hiatus, Mr. Logan remains optimistic about a musical comeback with his new band.

NYU Journalism’s Sarah Tung reports.

eastvillagedenizen

Good morning, East Village.

We begin today by letting out a sigh of relief about a local musical landmark. There was a fire Saturday night at 98 St. Marks Place, known to music lovers as one of the buildings featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album “Physical Graffiti.” While the blaze looked scary – EV Grieve has some vivid photos of the fire – no serious injuries were reported and the damage appears to have been contained mostly to a second-floor apartment. When Grieve visited Sunday there was virtually no visible damage to the exterior.

In other neighborhood news, New York magazine offers its take on NYU’s expansion plan. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York examines the disappearance of the mural featuring President Obama at Sixth Street and Avenue C and traces the lineage of recent street art at the site. (NYU Journalism’s Claire Glass captured an image of the mural being removed last Wednesday.)

And while we’re on the subject of street art, Neighborhoodr has a photo of Jim Joe’s latest piece.

Sarah Tung on finding compelling images in the East Village.

“As a sketch artist, I often see the world in cropped focus. Interesting people, shapes and colors most often catch my eye because my hand itches to record their essence on a thick sheet of drawing or water color paper. But in a fast-paced city like New York, I simply don’t have time to sit and draw for hours or days on end. Luckily, digital photography has been my savior.
And the East Village never ceases to amaze me.”
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John-Francis Bourke Susan McKeown’s new CD, “Singing in the Dark,” explores her family’s history of mental illness.

In September, songwriter Susan McKeown produced an album of children’s playground songs from all over the world, sung by East Village Community School students.

In stark contrast, her newest CD is a dark, often melancholic journey into the murky world of mental illness. The Irish-born Grammy Award-winning songwriter has forged an album that explores the connection between creativity and madness, brilliance and mental illness, helplessness and hope.

Singing in the Dark, released late last month, is Ms. McKeown’s attempt to grapple with her family’s history of mental illness. Three generations of men on her father’s side suffered from manic depression. “Because it’s in my family, it’s a way to take it on,” Ms. McKeown said. “It’s a way to help by addressing the issue.”

The 20-year resident of the East Village said she wanted to find a way to discuss mental illness that was free from the stigma that plagues diseases like schizophrenia. “Music is powerful and, like poetry, it expresses moods,” Ms. McKeown said. “By linking mental illness with creativity, and letting people ponder it through poetry and music, it seemed like a very human way to approach a subject that many learn about from sources such as commercials for pharmaceuticals”

The lyrics for “Singing in the Dark” originate from poems like Theodore Roethke’s “In a Dark Time,” Anne Sexton’s “Her Kind,” and “The Nameless One” by James Clarence Mangan.

“I read a lot of Irish nature poems about living solitary lives amongst nature,” Ms. McKeown said. “I looked for singability and something in the lyrics that speaks to creativity.”

Whether she’s backed by electric and acoustic guitars, accordion or piano, it is Ms. McKeown’s quivering, but relentless voice that dominates the soundscape. This, in turn, pushes the poetry to the forefront. Lyrics like, “there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” from the Leonard Cohen cover “Anthem” are among the many references to the link between brilliance and madness. “The creativity exists because of the mental illness,” Ms. McKeown said. “It offers a way to deal with what’s been handed to you.”

Stream songs from “Singing in the Dark” here.

Spencer Magloff A selection of the 900 beer varieties that are offered at Good Beer, a Ninth Street shop that opened Tuesday, which specializes in craft beer.

Once a niche drink, craft beers are tapping new devoted drinkers, especially in the East Village. At last month’s NY Craft Beer Week, the East Village had more participating bars than any other neighborhood in the city.

Good Beer on 422 East Ninth Street became the latest craft beer purveyor when it opened its doors on Tuesday. The shop stocks more than 400 chilled craft beers, and David Cichowicz, the store’s manager, said he hopes to have about 900 unique beers once all shipments are received from his six distributors. The beers are organized geographically from East to West coast in refrigeration flanking the entire right-side wall along with 12 growler-ready taps.

Besides their quintessentially quirky names—Ommegang, DogFish Head, Smuttynose, Allagash, Pretty Things—a beer is designated “craft” so long as it is brewed by traditional methods and lacks adjuncts like rice or corn that often lower production costs but dilute flavor. While craft beer often costs a few more dollars, many aficionados say the more flavorful taste and heftier alcohol content are well worth the price.

Spencer Magloff Taps (top) and bottles at Good Beer.

As U.S. beer sales declined in the first half of 2010, the craft brewing industry grew in both volume and retail dollars, according to the Brewers Association. While this is indicative of a national trend, Chris O’Leary, writer of the beer blog, Brew York, New York, said the trend has gained a particularly strong foothold in the East Village for several reasons.

For one, the neighborhood is less pricey and the demographic is generally younger. Also many The East Village restaurateurs believe food can pair as well with craft beer as with wine.

“There is just as much complexity to beer as wine, and people are becoming convinced they can couple craft beer with good food,” Mr. O’Leary said while sipping a pint of Shipyard Pumpkin Head at Destination Bar on Avenue A. Price is another consideration. “A lot of people can’t justify spending $40 for a bottle of wine, but $12 for a good six-pack is doable.”

The East Village also has a storied history of craft brewing tradition. Standings Bar on East Seventh Street, formerly known as Brewsky’s, was one of the first bars in all New York City to serve a selection of craft beers. This was 20 years ago when, as Mr. O’Leary said, “The holy grail was just to find a Samuel Adams.”

The “How did you meet?” question is almost as loaded as the “How did he propose?” question. Proposals you can plan, meeting your future girlfriend/boyfriend is usually left up to chance. To me, the meeting cycle of most single New Yorkers starts out at a house party, graduates to a bar, ends up online and after a self imposed break from dating altogether, your great aunt Esther fixes you up with a “nice young man” she met at services…or maybe that’s just me.
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Maya Millett Handbag designer Jack Germain, who resides in Alphabet City, shows off her upcoming spring collection.

When The Local first encountered handbag designer and fashion blogger Jack Germain, she was rushing to get a manicure in preparation for her 25th birthday party. It was one of the season’s first truly autumn days, and Ms. Germain, an Alphabet City resident, was outfitted accordingly — dressed in leggings, a slouchy green army jacket, and Victorian lace-up boots.

But what caused a stir among readers of The Local was her worn leather shoulder bag covered with muted gold studs, one of her own designs. Many of you wanted to know more about Ms. Germain, a raspy-voiced south Florida native who moved to New York five years ago in the hopes of making a name for herself in the fashion industry. We recently caught up with Ms. Germain again to talk about her upcoming spring collection, future goals and New Year’s resolutions.

How did you get into handbag designing?

When I was younger I wanted to design evening gowns for the Oscars, and as I got older I wanted to do clothes, then I wanted to do shoes, then handbags were just easiest to make. You could make a handbag out of your apartment. And the more I began to study up on it and get into bags themselves, I started to see this underlying theme with the woman’s handbag — that really it’s one of the most true reflections of who a woman actually is. It’s a reflection not only of the style of this woman but where this woman’s been. People change shoes, people change even sunglasses, but a bag is like a woman’s sidekick. My whole theme is that your bag lives the life that you live.
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Molly O’Toole Jim Lesczynski (left) of the Manhattan Libertarians, with New York state Libertarian Chairman Mark Axinn and Manhattan Libertarian Chairman Ron Moore.

The chairs are eerily empty, the table settings untouched. A blonde waitress in a black apron, seated in the far corner, says something in a language I don’t understand.

“Libertarian?” she repeated, this time in English, with a heavy Eastern European accent. 
I nod, and she points to another doorway.

The backroom of the tucked away Ukrainian East Village Restaurant seems an unlikely meeting spot for the Libertarian Party, but once a month its members gather loyally here to share their fiscally conservative, socially liberal ideology and some spinach pierogis.

It can’t be easy to be a Libertarian in this neighborhood, whose preferred political fare is liberal Democratic. Last week’s election was no exception.
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Andre Tartar The six-story brownstone at 114 East First Street has been riddled with problems — including a four-month-long gas outage and a rat infestation. Today, the building’s tenants are taking the landlords, Galron Realty, to court over the conditions.

Across from Katz’s Delicatessen on Houston Street is a six-story brownstone with cast-iron fire escapes zigzagging up its front, a Punjabi grocer on the ground floor, and a laundry list of problems.

About a third of the building’s apartments were recently without cooking gas for 138 days — no less than 20 separate complaints were filed with 311 since late June. Rats long ago colonized the garbage area and have been heard fighting under some tenants’ windows — 24 vermin complaints have been filed with 311. And water damage in several units is beginning to look like a possible health hazard while shoddy repair work plagues many apartments, as was observed during a recent visit to the building.

Most of this concerns rent-stabilized apartments, which make up about half the building’s 30 units and can go for as little as $500 a month or less. That said, new tenants in renovated apartments, some paying rents above $2,000, have been among those affected by the gas outage and experiencing leaks. So today, the fed-up tenants of 114 East First Street will face their landlord, Galron Realty LLC, in housing court.
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Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve has a detailed post about the ongoing dispute between the residents of East Fifth Street and the owners of the now-closed Sin Sin Lounge.

The post describes how the block association on Fifth used a recent hearing before the State Liquor Authority to call for the revocation of the liquor license that’s associated with the property.

Meanwhile, Bowery Boogie reports on a recent Lada Gaga sighting at a Lower East Side yoga studio.

EV Transitions has a nice history lesson on the old A.T. Stewart/John Wanamaker department store on Broadway and Ninth Street.

And The Villager offers some intriguing clues about the owner of the EV Lambo.