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September 2010
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Tenth Annual NYC Pickle Day Announced

The NY Food Museum and the L.E.S. B.I.D. have announced the date of the Tenth Annual NYC International Pickle Day.  The festival will be held on Sunday, Oct. 17th from 11am – 4:30p in the municipal parking lot on Broome Street (and on Broome Street between Orchard and Ludlow).  NY Food Museum has joined forces with Umami Food and Art Festival to curate a week of performance and art around Pickle Day.

Teun Voeten on Living With The Tunnel People at Bluestockings Tonight

War photographer and cultural anthropologist Teun Voeten went underground for five months in 1994 and 1995 and lived with a group of homeless people in a tunnel underneath Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He documented the experience, including their eviction in 1996, in the acclaimed book, Tunnel People.  Tonight at Bluestockings Bookstore, Voeten will read and present from an updated version, in which he tracks down the original tunnel dwellers and describes what has happened in the thirteen years since they left the tunnels.  FREE // 7pm // 172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington).

Midnight Movie at the Sunshine: Gone With The Pope

The Midnight Movie at the Sunshine Cinema is a return visit (“back by popular demand”) of the exploitation film, Gone With the Pope. It stars writer/director Duke Mitchell (Massacre Mafia Style) as Paul, a gangster with an unholy scheme: to kidnap the pope and charge “a dollar from every Catholic in the world” as the ransom.  They write: Shot in 1975 as Kiss the Ring, Gone With the Pope was unfinished at the time of Duke Mitchell’s death in 1981. Continue reading Midnight Movie at the Sunshine: Gone With The Pope

Good Morning: After the Storm, Found Phone – Big Trouble, “On the Bowery”

Photo by Jennifer Strom

It’s cleanup day across the new York City after yesterday afternoon’s crazy storm (tornado???).  Fortunately, it looks like the Lower East Side got off fairly easy.  Gamma Blog (via Flickr), however, has a visual look at the “lightning mystery”over The Ludlow.  Today, 76 degrees with a chance of afternoon/evening showers (remember, we said that yesterday!) 75 on Saturday and 79 Sunday — a chance of afternoon rain both days. Continue reading Good Morning: After the Storm, Found Phone – Big Trouble, “On the Bowery”

Grand Street to be Under Construction for Next 5 Years

It’s a $6 billion undertaking that began in 1970 and won’t be completed for another decade — the largest capital project in New York City history. Now, the construction of Water Tunnel #3 is going to be making its mark on the Lower East Side.  Last night, Community Board 3 got a glimpse of what’s ahead on Grand Street.

Continue reading Grand Street to be Under Construction for Next 5 Years

East River Promenade – Update

A Lo-Down tipster sent us this photo of an East River Promenade bridge, getting some attention today.

Dacia, A New Gallery on Stanton Street, Opens Tonight

Dacia Gallery opening tonight on 53 Stanton Street

We’ve just heard from artist and curator Lee Vasu about his new gallery, Dacia (pronounced like “dotcha”) that is opening up at 53 Stanton Street – tonight. Vasu has teamed up with his long time friend, author Damian Salo, to create Dacia Gallery.  He writes that the two “have been best friends since college and have organized numerous art exhibitions and events in both Europe and the United States.”  He told me everything came together very quickly once they decided to collaborate on something more permanent here on the Lower East Side.

Continue reading Dacia, A New Gallery on Stanton Street, Opens Tonight

Community Invited to Speak Out on Forsyth Street Rehab

This evening, a neighborhood non-profit, the Renaissance Economic Development Corp., will begin seeking community input about the transformation of a stretch of Forsyth Street.

The area they’re targeting runs alongside the Manhattan Bridge, between Division and Canal Streets. Home to a handful of fruit and vegetable vendors, the sidewalk and street are teeming with pedestrians and large delivery vehicles.

The organization, a division of Asian Americans for Equality, was accepted into the the NYC Plaza Program, an initiative to improve public spaces in all five boroughs. Continue reading Community Invited to Speak Out on Forsyth Street Rehab

Health Department Closes “Aces & Eights”

In the spring and summer of 2009, shortly after its opening, the Aces & Eights bar at 34 Ave. A generated a firestorm of complaints from the neighborhood. It was not a unique debate, just one more episode in the bar vs. neighbors drama that plays out all over the city.

But the Aces & Eights uproar, it turns out, probably could have been avoided altogether: the bar never obtained permission to open its doors, according to city officials.

On Tuesday, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shuttered the 18-month old watering hole for lack of a valid operating permit. It had been cited for the same violation in April 2010, and ordered not to reopen until the permit was issued, according to the health department’s public affairs office.

A note signed by “the management and staff” posted in the window Wednesday attributed the closure to “unforeseen paperwork/permit issues” and promised that they were “currently doing everything in our power to make sure we will reopen again tomorrow.”

Continue reading Health Department Closes “Aces & Eights”

Good Morning: Aces and Eights Shuttered, Grand Street Construction, Garden Activists Meet

Photo by Jennifer Strom

If you’ve walked past the bar Aces and Eights, 34 Avenue A, in the last couple of days, you might have noticed those tell-tale yellow signs indicating the business has been closed by “order of the Health Department.” Lo-Down contributing writer Jennifer Strom has been looking into what led to the closure. The chain of events she’ll detail later this morning makes for quite an illuminating story. Continue reading Good Morning: Aces and Eights Shuttered, Grand Street Construction, Garden Activists Meet

A Modern Day MacBeth Mashup at Clemente Soto Velez

Charlie Sandlan and Danielle Liccardo in a scene from TheBcam/MacBeth

The large ensemble team of Inertia Productions has put together a contemporary multi-media mash-up version of MacBeth, titled TheBcam/macbeth. Director Kevin Kittle explains (on nytheatre.com) TheBcam/MacBeth broadens the landscape and shows the repercussions and responses to the primary and primal acts of evil.” They’ve got a very fancy video trailer here. It’s showing at the Flamboyan Theater in the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center through September 26th.  $18 // 8pm // 107 Suffolk Street.

Comic Book Artists Bring Carousel to Dixon Place Tonight

Well-known comic book artist R. Sikoryak will host his curated show, Carousel (cartoon slide shows & other projected pictures) to Dixon Place tonight. Featuring Laurie Sandell, Dale Goodson, Brian Dewan, Emily Flake, John Kovaleski & The Association for the Betterment of Sex (Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Jason Roeder, Mike Sacks & Ted Travelstead). $15 // 7:30pm // 161A Chrystie Street.

More on Dora, the Gourmet Coffee Shop Opening on East Broadway

During the summer, we mentioned that a new gourmet coffee shop called Dora would be moving into 221 East Broadway, on the corner of Clinton Street.  Traven had a nice talk earlier today with Nicole Slaven, who’s going to be running the business (look for that story sometime soon).  Meanwhile, Serious Eats profiled Slaven in a feature they posted on the coffee vendors at the Hester Street Fair: Continue reading More on Dora, the Gourmet Coffee Shop Opening on East Broadway

The Day After: Saujani’s Future

Reshma Saujani

More now on Rajani vs. Maloney.  The political newcomer, who rents an apartment in the East Village, showed a lot of determination (some said chutzpah) in taking on an 18-year incumbent. A short time after learning of her defeat by Congresswoman Maloney, Reshma Saujani told the “East Village Local” she is undeterred:

“I’m definitely running again. What we built was a movement… There’s no way I’m going to be one of those folks who runs, loses, and you never see them again. We started something, and we’re going to finish it.” Continue reading The Day After: Saujani’s Future

Free Dessert!

This is definitely the day to indulge your sweet tooth.  In an ingenious effort to promote, Top Chef’s “Just Desserts,” Bravo has dreamed up “Free Dessert Day.”  Quite a few restaurants in the neighborhood are taking part. In most cases, you have to order a meal in order to be eligible (every two diners gets a free dessert). As a service to our readers, here’s the Lo-Down: