Passengers wait for their ride (photo courtesy of Save LES Streets)
After a two-year grace period, the city is finally moving to enforce legislation that aims to regulate the thriving (and some would say infuriating) Chinatown bus industry, in the hopes of mitigating the “wild west” atmosphere that the throng of ludicrously cheap long-haul carriers have introduced to the affected downtown zones.
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Since everyone cool/loaded has left the city for a summer get-away and you’re still here, what better way to pass these lazy days than by learning to battle the Illuminati, showing off your mad fanboy language skillz or getting acquainted with Emperor Augustus.
Thursday August 21
Julie Schumacher + Ethan Rutherford
Dear Committee Members, Julie Schumacher’s eighth novel, is an epistolary satire of academia that has been earning—as the title of a Slate review puts it, “Strongest possible endorsement.” Made up of letters of recommendation written by a beleaguered literature professor (whose promising career in fiction is now just a fading memory), the book is a bitingly witty portrait of a dying English department and the embittered man who dwells in its decomposing innards. More →
Learn about the rise and fall and rise of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the fight for tenant rights in Poland, and re-appreciate the street art you no longer notice, with this week’s worthy readings and talks.
Thursday, August 14
Mmmmmmmushrooms (Photo courtesy of Flickr)
Psychedelic drugs reaching a hallucination-drenched, kaleidoscopically patterned saturation point in the 1960s and 70s, during the zenith of American and European counterculture movements. Sadly, peak-mushroom was unsustainable. More →
When you think of Argentinian food, your mind’s eye probably goes immediately to glistening slabs of beef. Yes, the steak is good. But Chef Fernando Navas wants his new Lower East Side restaurant, Balvanera, to “open a new road into Argentine cuisine in New York.”
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Bashful Bags on display at the old Apostrophe gallery (Photo: Raspberry)
Apostrophe, the underground art space/party den that was shuttered last September, may be temporarily between galleries but that doesn’t mean it’s out of action.
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Image courtesy of The Squeeze
What’s hot pink, “naked” and raw-nchy? Why, the new bricks-and-mortar Brooklyn location of juice mecca The Squeeze, of course. The food-truck enterprise is now cold-pressing a veritable cornucopia of fresh produce at 195 Graham Ave in Williamsburg, and packaging the pure nectar with labels like “Get your juices flowing,” “I have a heart-on,” and “the jeans I wore in high school.” What with the suggestive monikers, the trademark screaming pink, and the nubile juice-covered flesh on display on The Squeeze’s website, the last thing browsers might expect to hear is the voice of God.
Things are getting hot and heavy at this week’s upcoming readings and talks, with historical badass battles, fictional prostitutes, sexy sex-ed films, and a look at why America insists on measuring stuff the way it does. Gallons of fun, ahoy.
Saturday, August 9
Ladies of the Night reading with Maggie McNeill
Maggie McNeill’s biography reads like the worst nightmare of every English major’s mother and/or the wet dream of every horny undergraduate male: a BA in literature, then a Masters of Library and Information Science and a brief stint as a suburban librarian, before economic imperatives compelled her to find work as a stripper, then a call girl, then a madam. This decade-long sex work stint ends happily (mothers, cue a sigh of relief) in the fairy-tale manner. Madam marries favorite client, moves to ranch, and is able at long last to combine both of her interests: writing and prostitution.
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Honey House already attracting the neighbourhood (Photo: Kirsten O’Regan)
Honey House, a recently materialized coffee shop on East 11th Street, may look new—but to East Village locals the face behind the counter might not. Andre Muñez grew up on 26th and Second, and ran Catalog, a vintage boutique, from Honey House’s location for a couple years before he switched from clothing to coffee.
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Yonekichi’s storefront on East 9th (Photo: Kirsten O’Regan)
Ever since we heard rice burgers were coming to the East Village, we’ve been on the story like white on, well, you know. But as anyone who has made rice before can tell you, a watched pot never boils. Short of boiling, Yonekichi has recently got its storefront in order.
Just days after Au Breve put out this signboard sending a shot across the bow of the Dunkin’ Donuts that recently opened a block away, the Cooper Square espresso bar has shut up shop, placing a considerably less cheeky sign on its doors to notify customers that it’s “closed for renovations.”
Was Dunkin’ the nail in the coffin for the pint-sized store serving a decent cup of joe to a clientele arguably made up of NYU and Cooper Union students? Or is Au Breve just gearing up for round two of the fight?
We’ve reached out to its owners for comment. In the meantime rest assured that Cafe Zaiya, on the other side of Dunkin’, is still going strong: an employee reached there yesterday said she hadn’t noticed any downtick in business since the chain opened.
