LOCAL SHOWS 11/30/06
This Week at the Abrons Arts Center
by
Julie Muller Stahl
Urban Ballet Theater's Nutcracker In the Lower Continues ... The Night Kitchen Radio Theater Presents: Nikolai Gogol’s The Portrait ... The Klezmatics: Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah Tour ... Life on the Lower East Side ... Photographs by Rebecca Lepkoff: 1937 - 1950...
REMINDER 12/06/06
Town Hall Meeting Tonight
by
Rob Hollander
An important Town Hall meeting with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will be held tonight, 6:30 PM at the Abrons Arts center, on Lower East Side community concerns...
TALK IS CHEAP 11/29/06
Introducing the New LoHo10002 Message Board
by
Yori Yanover, Editor
We debated for some time whether we wanted to launch our own messge board, seeing as there have been several substitutes (but, sadly, not replacements) for Joel Raskin's fabled neighborhood forum. Our idea is to offer a discussion board that's open not just to the local co-op community, but to many different groups around the 10002 zip code area. Try it out, see if you can add ideas, it'll be a bit clanky at the beginning, but we think you'll find it very useful.
LET'S DO PEACE 11/28/06
Mendez, Friends: Must Have National Dept. of Peace
by
Kevin Fagan
Councilmembers Rosie Mendez (Manhattan-2) and Miguel Martinez (Manhattan-10), will introduce a City Council Resolution endorsing federal legislation before the United States House of Representatives and Senate proposing the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Nonviolence...
TOTALLY LEFT BEHIND 11/28/06
Yori Does Lehrer
by
Yori Yanover
Yesterday WNYC's Brian Lehrer had on Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, co-authors of the Evangelical Christian sci-fi books Left Behind. Their message is that if Jews (and everyone else on the planet) do not embrace Jesus as their savior, they'll be condemned to eternal hell. I called in to set the record straight. My apologies to Mozilla users - your browser will autostart the audio file, despite my most sincere coding. IE users won't be subject to the same abuse.
CRANKY VOICES 11/28/06
Online Warrior
by
Yori Yanover
To be completely honest, this has been a totally new experience for me. All my professional life until three years ago I had been entangled in multiple-front wars, juggling my leftist politics with my religious-Jewish convictions and making great friends and great enemies at a moment’s notice. Not any more...
SPIRITUAL ADVENTURES 11/27/06
Our Shabbat Dinner at Punch & Judy
by
Chava Gottlieb
The evening, which was by advance reservations, brought out a diverse crowd of over 60 very enthusiastic participants (many more people were turned away due to space constraints). The majority of participants were in their 20’s and 30’s, some newly married, many still single, almost all local neighborhood residents...
YIDDISH THEATER 11/27/06
Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America
by
Don Cruise
You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this wry take on a nearly extinct institution that left an indelible mark not only on the Lower East Side, but also on Broadway and the American stage, and whose history echoes in today’s headlines about immigration and assimilation. The Adlers, the Thomashefskys, Bertha Kalish, Maurice Schwartz, Abraham Goldfaden and Molly Picon are among the largely forgotten stars of Stefan Kanfer’s hyperkinetic ensemble. ..
COFFEE POLITICS 11/27/06
Candy Store Blues
by
Yori Yanover
The candy store at the corner of Grand and Madison has been there ever since I first arrived in this neighborhood, when dinosaurs still roamed the planet and a primeval forest covered most of the area between the FDR Drive and Essex Street...
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 11/26/06
Protest Proposed Police Infringements
by
Rob Hollander
There will be a demonstration tomorrow, Monday, 10:30 AM, at 1 Police Plaza (near City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge), to protest the police proposal to further curb rights of assembly in New York City. The Constitution says nothing about getting a NYPD permit for public assembly...
LOCAL WORSHIP 11/26/06
Saint Augustine's Church and the Slave Galleries
by
Don Cruise
Perhaps the most interesting feature in Saint Augustine's are the two slave galleries at the rear of the balcony on each side of the tower. The congregation worships in the shadow of these two galleries: Haunting, box-like rooms above the balcony where African Americans were forced to sit...
FUN & MISERY 11/25/06
For Bargains, Can't Beat the Street
by
Robin Shulman
More than a century ago, Italian and Jewish peddlers sold their wares from pushcarts on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Unlike those immigrants, today's vendors barely get by, according to a recent report by the Urban Justice Center's Street Vendor Project. The vendors have to deal with often-confusing regulations, arbitrary enforcement and, sometimes, heavy fines, said the report, based on interviews with more than 100 vendors...
SYN-A-GOGO 11/25/06
Hot, New Shul Making Waves
by
Yori Yanover
Saturday afternoon at the Stanton Street shul, Professor Daniel Boyarin drew a rather large crowd of men and women who came to hear his third-meal talk on the study of complimentary Jewish and Christian midrashic texts...
SOME FOLKS HAVE MORE THANKFULS 11/24/06
Thanksgiving
by
Don Cruise
I went out yesterday and it was a great night out. Following a tasty dinner – which included 3 bottles of red wine for the 7 of us and that’s why by the time we left the place I was pretty tipsy – at an Argentinean restaurant located in the Lower East Side (I must highlight that for the first time in weeks we had a majority of girls – good fun and pretty ones, actually – in the group) we headed to the East Village where beers, tequila shots and spirits helped us to stick around until around 4 AM...
MUST HAVE MORE BLUE BUILDING REVIEWS 11/24/06
The Thick Blue Line
by
James Gardner
Perhaps it was the satisfying lunch I had just consumed at Katz's Delicatessen, or the unusually fine weather for a mid-November afternoon. In either case, I found myself better disposed than I would ever have expected to Blue, Bernard Tschumi's all but completed 16-story residential tower at 105 Norfolk St., right off of Delancey...
Free Flu Fix
Gouverneur Healthcare Services will be having a flu shot campaign, Mon. November 27 through Fri. December 8th, 10AM to 3PM, in their lobby, 227 Madison Street, 212.238.7050. Flu shots are provided at no cost. Insurance will be billed when appropriate.
YOUR BIDNESS 11/23/06
Purple Tues, Yellow Weds, Orange Thurs
by
Lower East Side BID
Who needs black Friday? Every day is a new hue on the LES. Let the fun begin! The Lower East Side is brimming with amazing finds for the holiday season. Now's your chance to scoop them up. Pop on by to absorb some culture and pick up some of the hottest gift items (for yourself of others) around.
Start up top or begin below to explore everthing we have to offer...
Daniel Greenberg, Tina Carr and their boy, Sam Carr Photo: Grand Street News
TRAGEDY 11/22/06
Lower East Side Toddler killed in two-car crash
by
Don Cruise
A two-year-old boy from the Lower East Side was killed Tuesday afternoon in a collision on Route 6 near Route 293 in Woodbury, NY. State Police said a Subaru driven by Daniel Greenberg, a resident of Seward Park Housing, drifted off the right shoulder and as he attempted to bring it back to the road, he lost control, crossed into the opposite lane and was struck by a minivan driven by Lorraine Anderson.
On impact, the rear end of the Subaru was torn off and the occupants in the rear of the vehicle – Tina Carr, 34, one-year-old Nico Greenberg, and two-year-old Samuel Greenberg – were all thrown into a wooded area. Greenberg, Carr and Samuel Greenberg all sustained head injuries; Nico Greenberg was not injured. All four were flown to Westchester Medical Center where Samuel Greenberg died a short time later.
ETHNO-SCHMENDRIK 11/22/06
Red, White & Jew!
by
LD Beghtol
We babble insanely about Uncle Jody's Jewface, a lusciously curated new disc of archival recordings of blackface's kissing cousin, out now on Reboot Stereophonic. This is a perfectly hideous, non-PC and often hysterically funny homegrown (in New York's humble Lower East Side) vaudeville of ethnic caricatures strutting their stuff and lovin' it, circa 1900. Got it?
KUNG FU CRACKER 11/21/06
Urban Ballet this Week at the Abrons Arts Center
by
Julie Muller Stahl
Mark your calendars for the return of Urban Ballet Theater’s celebrated twist on Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet. Set on the Lower East Side and filled with a colorful array of dance, including flamenco, hip-hop, and martial arts...
NEWSIC 11/21/06
Modest Mouse SOLD-OUT and Mellowed-Out
by
Nate Eckstrom
Modest Mouse was the hot ticket on the Lower East Side this weekend. Tickets were being scalped on Craigslist for $100 or more, which is amazing considering this was the fourth of the bands five NYC area shows...
TERRORISM TODAY 11/20/06
Harassing Mideastern Cyclists
by
Nate Eckstrom
An officer called out to her to pull the bike over. A lot of bicyclists were being stopped, and so she didn’t see anything strange in this. When he asked if she had any weapons, she thought it was a little odd. Then, when he asked if she had any “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” she laughed...
WOODY'S MENORAH 11/19/06
Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah Show
by
Melissa
Tonic is presenting at the Abrons Arts Center The Klezmatics, forever transcending genres, blending klezmer with aching shtetl melodies, raucous Latin stomps, wild jazz riffs and provocative Arabic, African, American and Balkan rhythms...
HISTORY WALKS 11/17/06
Walking With David Levinsky
by
Don Cruise
Join Rabbi Pollak and Elissa Sampson for a walking tour of the Lower East Side beginning at the Stanton Street Shul. Walk the life of David Levinsky, hero of "The Rise of David Levinsky" by Abraham Cahan. The program will begin with bagels and lox at the Stanton St. Shul, 180 Stanton Street...
PEACE & LEARN 11/17/06
A Sense of Peace as PTA Is Elected at NEST+m
by
Don Cruise
On Thursday night, as elections were held to replace the PTA officers who quit en masse last month to protest the principal's leadership of the Lower East Side gifted and talented school, the meeting went relatively smoothly.
The frequent whooping and shouting in the filled auditorium was mostly celebratory, and the security guards intervened only once, when one father lunged at another he accused of making a disparaging remark about his wife.
HEALTH 11/16/06
Quinn Promises Healthcare for All at Betances Gathering
by
Yori Yanover
A while back, outgoing Governor George Pataki, responding to a growing number of hospitals on the verge of bankruptcy and a staggering number of New Yorkers without health insurance, assembled the Berger Commission to evaluate which local hospitals deserve to survive and which must join the trash heap of medical history...
BRRRR 11/16/06
Naked Trees
by
Yori Yanover
This was the last week of disrobing for local trees. The sidewalks are covered in a carpet of yellow and red leaves, no longer majestic and colorful, more like your rug at four in the morning, after the big party...
PICKS 11/16/06
New Valley on the Lower East Side
by
Don Cruise
Valley, a new retail space in New York City's Lower East Side, aims to create a living room-style atmosphere with a one-stop shopping experience incorporating apparel, a nail and waxing salon and a cafe. It was conceived by sisters Julia and Nina Werman, a former social worker and a member of the Lower East Side Community Board, respectively...
DEPT. OF RIGHT ANGLES 11/15/06
Squared at the Edgy
by
David Gibson
A new generation of artist whose work twists, bends, squashes, highlights and distorts the 20th century's all important grid. "Squared" contemporary abstract painting by Peter Barrett, Caroline Burton, Jeff Feld, Danielle Mysliwiec, Keiko Narahashi, Mary Ann Standell, Bradley Wester, John Zinsser...
LOCAL MOVIE 11/14/06
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
by
Don Cruise The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is the breathtakingly beautiful and long-awaited second feature from the Brothers Quay. On the eve of her wedding, the beautiful opera singer Malvina is mysteriously killed and abducted by a malevolent Dr. Droz...
STREET SCENES 11/14/06
The Reluctant Clown
by
Yori Yanover
I needed illustration shots for an item on the new zoning laws, so I'm standing on the sidewalk south of Delancey, at Ludlow, and this clown walks by, handing out leaflets for something. I took a picture of him and he reacted like I exposed him to kryptonite...
SILO ART 11/14/06
Gary Burnley, Decoys, Through Dec. 16
by
Carol Markel
In his exhibition at Silo, artist Gary Burnley presents a new series of painted collages on paper called Decoys. He began this body of work in 2002 after an extended period of time focusing on public and urban renewal projects...
SHUL SONG 11/13/06
Spiritual Warriors
by
Yori Yanover
Each morning I enlist in a spiritual squad of grownup Jews whose mission is to make the world a slightly better place by gathering at one place, donning the garments and tools of our craft and engaging in a succession of study segments, meditations, liturgical praise to the Divine, group confession and supplications...
SCREENING 11/13/06
Orchard Street, the Movie
by
Carol Markel
Ken Jacobs will screen and discuss his first film Orchard Street (1956) Sat. Nov. 18th at 6pm. "One of the things I first got together was a film on Orchard Street, which was very, very Jewish at the time..."
LITTLE FOOD 11/13/06
Zucco: Le French Diner
by
Andrea Thompson
Don’t despair if, in looking through the windows of this tiny restaurant on the Lower East Side, it appears completely full. Zucco, the wiry and goateed owner, might size you up (girth plays a factor) and ask a couple at the bar to slide over and open up a space. There’s room here for about twenty (there are three small tables), and the tight quarters force a sense of camaraderie: anytime a guest needs to walk toward the back, to the rest room, patrons along the bar cheerfully lean forward to make way...
A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY 11/12/06
Rabbi Meir Kahane Was Arlo Guthrie's Bar Mitzva Coach
by
Don Cruise
Arlo Guthrie remembers his boyhood Hebrew tutor as "a sweet guy, a nice guy." Every week for an hour or so, the young rabbi would travel to the Guthrie’s home in Queens to teach Torah to the boy and his younger brother and sister. It was many years later that Arlo Guthrie heard the name of his rabbi again. By this time, Meir Kahane was no longer the gentle teacher...
LES REZONING 11/12/06
How Tall is that Building in my Window?
by
Rob Hollander
A large crowd of between 150 and 200 residents turned out for the LES rezoning forum on Monday. DCP presented nearly the exact same plan it presented in July, providing no new data or support...
FOGGY TOPS 11/12/06
Williamsburg Bridge Reaching Upward...
by
Yori Yanover
Riding home from shul this morning I spotted the towers of the Williamsburg Bridge, partially obscured by the fog. The fog rode heavily over the city and the street below was nearly deprived of color...
DON'T MISS IT 11/11/06
MF Toys Show Opening Party Saturday Nite!
by
Carol Markel
MF Toys Show 2006 Rock N Roll opening party, Saturday, November 11, 7-10 PM. Come have a drink and see all new one-of-a-kind hand-made toys...
TENEMENT READ 11/10/06
Celebrate the Downtown Literary Scene, 11.15.06
by
Amy Silberman
The New York Book Club invites you to celebrate the publication of Up is Up, But So is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992. We are thrilled to celebrate the first book to capture the spontaneity of the Downtown literary scene in its most vital period...
DEPT. OF QUANTITY 11/10/06
70 Artists at Stanton Street Exhibition
by
Wendy & Nina
Jordin Isip has invited over 70 artists to participate in a group exhibition at Aidan Savoy Gallery. Providing each artist with two 5” x 5” wood panels, they were assigned the task of creating an image of one eye on each...
CONSTITUENCY THIS 11/10/06
A day in Latin 'Nueva York'
by
Beth J. Harpaz
Begin with breakfast in the Dominican Republic: cafe con leche and mashed plantains. Lunch at a Brazilian buffet. Snack on a Colombian fruit shake, then stop at a Mexican taqueria for dinner. After dark, hit a salsa club. Tour Latin America all day, without ever leaving New York City. Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in The Five Boroughs shows you how...
BID FOR ATTENTION 11/10/06
A Tale of Two BIDs
by
Pat Arnow
The Village Alliance Business Improvement District added some blocks to its Greenwich Village district when Mayor Bloomberg signed a bill for the expansion Thursday at City Hall. City Council member Alan Gerson, who represents Lower Manhattan including the Lower East Side, was on hand for the bill signing...
LEGAL LEARNING + BAGELS 11/10/06
Health Care Proxies and Living Wills
by
Jason M. Brocks, Attorney at Law
Learn how these important documents protect you and your loved ones, in a workshop presented by a local attorney (my office is uptown, though) Thursday, November 16. Bagel breakfast starts at 9:00 AM, Program begins at 9:30 AM. The Legal Learning Series workshops are open to anyone, free of charge...
PLACE THAT MATTERS 11/09/06
PS 64 the Landmark
by
Margaret Hayden
With all the buzz around the rezoning of the Lower East Side, we wanted you to know about Place Matters and The Municipal Art Society’s featured Place that Matters of the Week. This week we’re featuring P.S. 64 on East 9th Street...
BE VERY AFRAID 11/09/06
Will DOT Do Too Much For Grand Street?
by
Yori Yanover
Last night it became clear that the attention Assemblymember Silver has focused on the stretch of Grand Street between the FDR Drive and Lewis Street, with his letter to DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall, may yield cures that are worse than the problems...
YOUTH MUSIC 11/09/06
Soul Farm in Shul
by
Yarden Yanover
My girlfriends and I attended the first half hour or so of the Soulfarm acoustic show at the Stanton Street Synagogue. The audience was huge, but mostly adults, who probably appreciated the show more than we did...
DEMS WIN 11/08/06
Everything Is Beautiful; It's Morning in America
by
The Morning Line
While bleary-eyed Democrats are gloating like Posties on circ day, let's go over the entirely unsurprising results of local races. Hillary made quick work of John Spencer (Blues Explosion! Get it?), Spitzer is your new and already boring governor, Cuomo crushed Pirro, and Alan Hevesi is back, uh, behind the wheel...
ZONING FOR DUMMIES III 11/08/06
Impact
by
Rob Hollander
The 120-foot-height zoning plan for Houston and Delancey and Avenue D is contextual in name only. The Houston/Delancey/D context is not currently 120 feet high. So the plan contemplates a substantial change on these three streets...
EARLY & OFTEN 11/07/06
Already Voted, Now It's Fingernail Biting and Beer
by
Yori Yanover
Yesterday I spotted the voting machines truck parked outside 573-7 Grand Street. It was a relief to see that we're still using those old iron horses, instead of the Venezuelan robots. I dread the day those cheat-me screens invade my voting station...
NOSTALGIA 11/07/06
Joel's Excellent Virtual Bar Brawl
by
Jack E. Dell
As our local message board is slated for final shut-down by its owner/operator, here's a taste of what it was like more than two years ago, when the earth was young and full of hope...
Attend the Crucial 197 Plan Task Force Community Presentation
Today, Monday, November 6, 6:30 PM
Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place
Come and attend the Community presentation by Department of City Planning regarding
zoning plan for the area from the north side of East 13th Street,
the west side of Avenue D, the north side of Houston Street,
the west side of Pitt Street, the north side of Delancey Street,
the east side of Essex Street, the north side of Grand Street,
100 feet in from the east side of Bowery and 100 feet in from
the west side of Third Avenue.
ZONING FOR DUMMIES II 11/06/06
What's Affordable Housing?
by
Rob Hollander
In the world of triumphal capitalism, government is no longer expected to build housing. Instead, government gives incentives to private developers and
hopes the developers do the work big government used to do. That's what inclusionary zoning is all about: trying to turn always robust American greed to good use...
DRINK THIS 11/06/06
Set the twilight reeling
by
Michael Thaler
He's a poet, a painter, a photographer, a bon vivant. He watches time melt into eternity from his seat at an outdoor cafe. "I've been an alcoholic and a tobacco smoker for 60 years. And you know, I haven't been to a doctor since I got back from Korea in '56..."
NEIGHBORHOODS 11/05/06
Winter in New York
by
Ellen Bradshaw
A small works show of intimate scenes of New York in oil, capturing the quiet beauty of the winter season. New York neighborhoods - from the streets of lower Manhattan, the Seaport and Financial district, to Grand Central Station and St Patrick’s Cathedral - are transformed in winter, whether by snow or sparkling lights beckoning us in from the bitter cold...
BATTLE OF THE NEST 11/04/06
Chancellor Cites Favoritism at a New York School
by
Elissa Gootman
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said the New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math school’s practices were a "stark and different" example of the kind of favoritism that he has been trying to eliminate from the city’s array of coveted schools and gifted programs. Officials say an examination of the school’s most recent kindergarten admissions documents shows that school officials were looking not only at students’ performance, but also at how involved their parents were likely to be...
HANGING BY STRINGS 11/03/06
Bread And Puppet Theater at 35
by
Jonathan Slaff
It's 35 years since Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theater first performed at Theater for the New City, and the acclaimed ensemble will return to TNC from November 30 to December 17, 2006 with two new works, one for adults and one for children...
METRO RACES 11/03/06
The Best and Worst Bus: M14A
by
Don Cruise
There appears to be a total disagreement between passengers on the buses which clog the poor arteries of our Grand Street every hour of every day. Read the following entry from the Village Voice's Elizabeth Zimmer and decide for yourself whether you've ever read a more near-climactic review of a bus line before...
WHAT'S IN A NAME 11/02/06
Meet You on Sheriff Street
by
Don Cruise
Sheriff Street used to stretch from Grand Street at East Broadway north to East Houston Street. Now its path is blocked by Amalgamated Housing in the south and Masaryk Towers in the north. So it’s basically an underpath below the Williamsburg Bridge...
PREMATURE BURIAL 11/02/06
Gertel's Bakery Not Closing
by
Yori Yanover
According to Abe Stein, owner of the legendary kosher bakery Gertel’s, at 53 Hester Street, there is "no base to rumors that the store is closing..."
WALKING TOUR 11/02/06
Colonial Jewish
by
Laurie Tobias-Cohen
The Jewish Community of Colonial New York City and a Tour of New York's first Jewish Cemetery (1683) at Chatham Square, a Post Thankgiving Walking Tour in Lower Manhattan...
AT THE SUNSHINE 11/01/06
Pedro Almodóvar's Volver
by
Don Cruise
All glorious reds and billowing flowered sheets, Volver may be his finest film yet this millennium. In his three decades of filmmaking, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has resuscitated the much-maligned genre of melodrama by committing unequivocally to his wild-eyed, wild-side premises...
LANDLORDS & TENANTS 11/01/06
Noah's Ark Threatened with Eviction
by
Yori Yanover
We received a press release this week from the law office of John Ciurcina, representing Noah’s Ark on Grand Street, accusing Seward Park Housing Corp. of “trying to rid Lower Manhattan of its only remaining glatt kosher deli...”
NEWLY AGED 11/01/06
Soulfarm at Stanton Street
by
Don Cruise
Soulfarm's C Lanzbom & Noah Solomon will perform in an intimate acoustic performance at the Stanton Street Shul on Saturday night, November 4. Come hear C & Noah perform their original Hebrew and English music, as well as Shlomo Carlebach Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead songs...
CONTEMPORARY MONSTERS 11/01/06
Halloween on the Edge
by
Pat Arnow
From Marie Antoinette to Borat to a personification of Mott and Grand, everybody was making the rounds. I went out to do some gawking, but first got all bloodied up...
Free Flu Fix
