At several sites throughout the Lower East Side this morning, observant Jews participated in the burning of the chametz, leavened bread products, in preparation for Passover. The first Seder takes places at sundown this evening.
         
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This popular feature spotlights a wide variety of people who live and work on the Lower East Side. If you know someone you would like to suggest be featured in “My LES,” please email us here.
Dutch performance artist Marja Samsom arrived in New York’s East Village in the 80′s with a passion and dedication that enabled her to transform weekly prix fixe dinners for friends into The Kitchen Club which became an iconic destination for European-Japanese cuisine. Later Marja would expand with Chibi’s Sake Bar, named after her darling French bulldog, Chibi, and most recently transformed herself into “The Dumpling Diva,” providing enlightening cooking classes at a variety of venues throughout the city.  
Every day this week, we’ll be featuring the portraits of photographer A. Jesse Jiryu Davis — impromptu portraits made on the streets of the Lower East Side April 13, 2011.
 Photo by Joel Raskin. We begin the week with partly cloudy skies and the prospect of more rain this afternoon. Nothing like Saturday’s deluge, we hope. Look for a high of 60. Continue reading Good Morning!
Police need help finding a suspect in an attempted sexual assault on the Lower East Side Thursday night. The unidentified man followed a 17-year old woman into an apartment building near Clinton and Madison streets at about 10 p.m. Police say she was forced from the elevator, in the Laguardia Houses, and into a stairwell with a knife. The woman fought off the attacker, but he got away. Investigators believe the suspect is also responsible for the rape of a woman in another part of the Laguardia public housing complex on the morning of January 18th, 2010. The suspect is described as 17 to 25 years old, 5-feet-8-inches to 5-feet-10-inches tall and heavy set. In Thursday’s incident, he was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. NY1 has surveillance video showing the man inside the elevator. If you have information about either incident, call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES) — enter TIP577.
 Mason Dixon was closed last week. In the past few months we’ve been reporting about the 7th Precinct’s crackdown on Lower East Side bars and clubs. Our requests for information about the enforcement sweeps have gone unanswered by the NYPD’s press office. But this week, Captain David Miller, the 7th Precinct’s executive officer, talked expansively about the tactics being used to curb underage drinking, late night noise and overcrowding. His remarks came during Wednesday night’s Community Council meeting. Since last September, when he arrived as the precinct’s #2 officer (under Deputy Inspector Nancy Barry), more than 1100 summonses have been handed out for “quality of life” offenses. These include: 562 violations for carrying open alcohol containers and 351 instances of “disorderly conduct.” 274 of those charged with disorderly conduct were customers of LES nightlife establishments. Since the crackdown began, numerous bar owners have complained (but almost never for attribution) that the precinct is “nitpicking,” coming after nightlife venues for minor violations and victimizing good operators who are just trying to make a go of it in a tough economy. Wednesday evening, Miller spelled out why the issue has become such a high priority for his officers and repeatedly drove home the point that the crackdown is focused on serious, rather than trivial, violations. Continue reading 7th Precinct Captain Defends Nightlife Crackdown
City planners and Community Board 3 are inviting the public to a “SPURA Open House.” It’s a chance for people to weigh in on the urban design phase (building height, open space, etc) of the Seward Park planning process. There will be an opportunity to examine a 3-D model of the SPURA site (see above), which features lego-like building blocks that can be moved from site to site. Here’s the invitation:
The classic film Who Framed Roger Rabbit will be gracing the screen at the Sunshine Cinema’s Midnight Movie this weekend. One of the first films to brilliantly combine live action with animation, the wacky comedy cartoon noir/thriller features Bob Hoskins as a toon-hating private detective defending the wrongly accused toon star Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer), while trying to keep his hands off Roger’s wife, the now infamous cartoon diva, Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner). Christopher Lloyd voices the villain, Judge Doom, and Joanna Cassidy stars as the detective’s girlfriend. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. $10 // Friday and Saturday at midnight // 143 E. Houston.
Here’s a good news/bad news story. First, the bad: the Sunday Hester Street Greenmarket will not be returning to the Lower East Side this summer. For the past few years, Grow NYC tried to make a go of it — first on Grand Street and then on Essex, alongside the Hester Street Fair. Unfortunately, there was never sufficient demand for the farm-fresh produce being offered by the three or four farms represented. So the city has decided to call it quits. Continue reading Hester Street Greenmarket is Out; LES Youthmarket is In
 Photo by Joel Raskin. Partly cloudy today with a high of 53. Looks like more rain tomorrow, in the afternoon, with a high of 51. 60 on Sunday with afternoon sunshine. Be sure to check out our Calendar for events happening on the Lower East Side this weekend. And remember, you can self submit your own events. Enjoy the weekend.
Fans of HBO’s How to Make it in America did double-takes on Ludlow Street this afternoon, where a van covered in advertisements for the fictional energy drink Rasta Monsta was parked for a shoot. The cable series, about a group of NYC twentysomething hipster types, features a subplot in which actor Luis Guzman portrays an uncle of one of the main characters and peddles the drink, which has recently inspired a song by Marky. Continue reading HBO and The Cooking Channel Visit Ludlow and Orchard
Nine galleries will be on the tour, including: Invisible-Exports (which we profiled last month), the Bridge Gallery, the Lesley Heller Workspace, Lu Magnus, the Mark Miller Gallery, the Munch Gallery, Stephan Stoyanov, Scaarmamouche and the Allegra LaViola Gallery.The free tours begin at the LES Visitor Center, 54 Orchard Street. You can see the full list of galleries participating in Third Thursdays this month on the BID’s web site. Coming up on Monday, we’ll have the second installment of our series profiling Lower East Side gallery owners. This month we’re featurung Allegra LaViola. The Lo-Down is a media sponsor of Third Thursdays.
Here are musician Ken Beasley’s top music picks on the Lower East Side for this weekend:
 Matt Singer
MATT SINGER - Fri. Apr 15 І 10PM at The Living Room Matt Singer hits the Living Room this Friday with a fresh style of songwriting that packs in conversational lyrics about public restroom smells, foregoing alcohol at parties, and finding post break-up comfort in the spirit of John Madden. Equally refreshing, he manages to pair his comedic musical anecdotes with an unexpected mix of Folk, Klezmer and Calypso, with the help of a solid backing band of skilled jazz musicians. FREE//154 Ludlow St.
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