Daniel Maurer

Just a block or two from where his Kiss mural may soon disappear, Antonio “Chico” Garcia added what he called “a brush of color” to the back wall of Arena Eco-Friendly Salon last night.

Rena Anastasi, the owner of the salon at 189 Orchard Street, said the hot pink touches came out “even brighter than I thought,” but she’s feeling it. “It’s definitely fun, LES fun.”

Chico said he’s headed back to his new home in Tampa, Florida in a couple of weeks. Until then, he’ll be repairing his work in the area, including the murals outside the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which got a touch-up yesterday afternoon. “I’m just doing something for the community before I leave,” he said.

Nice Guy Eddie’s just announced on Facebook that after 16 years it will close on Sunday. News that the Avenue A sports bar owned by Community Board 3 member David McWater would shut down broke in April when it was revealed that the owner of Ella and Gallery Bar, Darin Rubell was taking over the space. Meanwhile, the staff of the bar popular among football fans tells customers, “We’re throwing a huge party Sunday, so stop by and wish us farewell!” Still no word on whether the Kiss mural by Chico will remain.

Photos: Daniel Maurer

The Local got a look inside the eerily abandoned Mary Help of Christians school when we visited the set of “Girl on the Train” last night. The school was closed in 2006 – a victim of Archdiocese of New York’s citywide restructuring – and its building is currently on the market along with the connected church, which closed in 2007 (though it still hosts Sunday masses).

Some of the old gymnasium’s floorboards have been uprooted and the paint is peeling off the walls, but remnants of the building’s former incarnation remain: a discarded pencil sharpener here, a school desk there, a handwritten sign on a closed door reading “Teacher’s Only!” Most haunting are the messages that linger on chalkboards: “Te amo Jesus, por favor habre nuestra iglesia” reads one (“I love you Jesus, please open our church”).

Have a glimpse inside, via our slideshow. (There’s just something about abandoned school buildings.) You’ll see some graffiti and equipment from the film shoot, but you’ll also see gloriously untouched murals, starting with one by Chico. It reads: “Mary Help of Christians Welcomes You.”

Daniel Maurer

Good morning, East Village.

It seems Bob Arihood (the above tribute to whom was painted by Chico yesterday) wasn’t the only one to tend after injured squirrels. On East Seventh Street near Second Avenue, we spotted a sign explaining that an orphaned baby squirrel has gone missing, and must be returned to a “federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator” because it is too young to crack nutshells for itself.

If IHOP’s new sidewalk canopy leaves you cold, and you’re more a fan of the “Eat Me” sign above Crif Dogs, take note: In honor of the hot dog spot’s 10th anniversary, everything is $1 today, and, according to its Facebook page, there’ll be a party with free rum shots tonight.

Just in time for Game 5 tonight, former Yankees and Mets right fielder Darryl Strawberry will be signing autographs between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Village Pourhouse, reports Bowery Boogie. Read more…

Jay Hukahori Intersection 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.”

Neighborhoodr reprints a piece in Italian Maxim featuring Marky Ramone along with Jimmy Webb and Marzio Dal Monte of Trash and Vaudeville.

Bowery Boggie has a look at the latest Chico mural, at 397 Grand Street. Read more…

Leigh LedareThanks for the help, Mr. Levitt.

He may have started out in Los Angeles, but musician Alain Levitt, one half of NYC synth-pop duo Bubbles, has called the East Village home for a solid decade. “The neighborhood has changed quite a bit,” he muses via e-mail in between recording sessions. “There’s good coffee now, some nice restaurants and lots and lots of college kids.” Having recently wrapped a “mini East Coast tour” with Gang Gang Dance, he’ll likely see more of those college kids when he hits the road again. For the moment, however, he found time to tell us about his favorite local hangs.

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Kenan Christiansen Antonio Garcia, the street artist known as Chico, recently received commissions for 10 new neighborhood murals, including this in-progress work outside Whiskers pet supply store on Ninth Street. Below (from left), Phil Klein, a co-owner of Whiskers, Mr. Garcia and artist Joel Salas.

It’s hard to walk around the East Village and not run into a mural by Antonio Garcia, who’s known to almost everyone by his nom de spraypaint, Chico. The locally born graffiti artist has spent most of his 34-year-career dedicated to painting the public walls of the neighborhood with lush murals often directly inspired by contemporary events.  When he was laid off from his job at NYC Housing in 2008 he left the city to live in Florida with his family.

“I always said I’d come back,” said Mr. Garcia, standing before his latest work at Whiskers Holistic Pet Care on Ninth Street.  “If they pay for my ticket, I’ll come.”

And even though he’s only been in the city a few weeks his murals have already began to proliferate.

On his most recent trip, sponsored by Branson B. Champagne, Mr. Garcia painted a mural celebrating the royal wedding on a wall in East Houston and Avenue B. The job only took 12 hours and he soon had more projects lined up. Before he leaves on June 24, Mr. Garcia agreed to 10 new mural projects in the neighborhood.
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Phoenix Eisenberg

Graffiti is an iconic form of artistic rebellion, whose epicenter has long been New York City.

With activities ranging from boxcar tagging to anarchistic promotion, the graffiti artist has a persona associated with intrigue and deviousness. But why the fascination with graffiti as a fine art in the last few years? Do popular graffiti artists today such as Banksy, Judith Supine, Shepard Fairey, and Dan Witz still portray rebellion?

Antonio Garcia, better known as “Chico,” started his career of spray-painting illegally, but soon found a new way to use his talents. Seeing the plain walls and brick that covered the Lower East Side, Chico saw a market. Today it is difficult to walk a block without seeing his commissioned work, whether it is a memorial or a small ad for a veterinarian business. Although Chico’s work is arguably just as skilled and creative as some of the greatest artists in the field, he has not drawn as much interest as Banksy or Shepard Fairey. Perhaps this is because, in jumping on the legal and marketable side of the art form, he risks losing the exact quality that draws so many to graffiti – the thrill of the illicit.

Courtesy Antonio GarciaJairo Pastoressa was deemed “mentally unfit” to stand trial in the Oct. 25 murder of Christopher Jusko.

In the days since Christopher Jusko was killed, his step-sister, Christina Rumpf, has ridden a range of emotions, heightened since Wednesday when she learned that the man who the authorities said fatally stabbed Mr. Jusko has been deemed “mentally unfit” to stand trial.

Now, Ms. Rumpf feels sadness for what she says is essentially the loss of two young lives.

“I’ve always felt that living the rest of your life with the guilt of knowing you killed an innocent person is a certain kind of punishment, one that no court verdict will ever alter,” Ms. Rumpf told The Local. “One man made one quick decision and took two lives: my brother’s and his own. There really is no justice in a situation like this, only sad stories.”

On Wednesday, Jairo Pastoressa, 25 – who the authorities said killed Mr. Jusko Oct. 25 after a dispute over a woman in whom both had a romantic interest – was ordered to undergo treatment at the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Ward’s Island.

Ms. Rumpf learned of the development from The Local and said that her family continues to cope with the loss of Mr. Jusko, who was 21.

“This has been an extremely hard time for my family,” Ms. Rumpf wrote in an e-mail message. “But we’re all doing our best to deal with the shock of losing someone so young in such an unexpected way.”
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