Today, gypsy-folk-punk renegades Gogol Bordello gave a free lunchtime show at everybody’s favorite avant-garde music venue, the Urban Outfitters in Soho. (They also signed copies of vinyl cause, duh, Urban Outfitters).
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Mark Your Calendar For These Two Outdoor Arts Festivals in the East Village
2012’s FAB! Festival. (Photo: Whitney Browne)
The East Village’s cultural institutions are taking it to the streets again, as the details of two big outdoor arts festivals were announced today.
Theater for the New City is preparing to kick off its annual Summer Street Theater Tour, which has been bringing free outdoor theater to low-income communities since the 1970s. This year they’ll be hitting up neighborhoods in all five boroughs, including Bed-Stuy, the South Bronx, Jackson Heights, Coney Island, Harlem, West New Brighton, and the East Village.
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10 Things We Learned From This 21-Year-Old Williamsburg Time Capsule
Twenty-one years ago last month, New York ran a cover story titled “The New Bohemia,” about Williamsburg’s burgeoning artist community. Today, revisiting the eight-page spread – which we’ve embedded for you below – is like opening a time capsule from a moment when the neighborhood was on the precipice of change. “In the seventies, it was SoHo. In the eighties, the East Village. In the nineties, it will be Williamsburg,” said one interviewee. Here now are 10 things we learned about the Billyburg of 1992.
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LES in BK: Max Fish Closes Aug. 1, The Johnsons Opening Soon
(Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)
Meanwhile another LES staple, Max Fish, finally has a closing date. Gallerist reported yesterday that it’s shuttering August 1, and the site seems to be psyched about the Fish’s forthcoming Williamsburg location: “So, Brooklyn! The Lower East Side can suck it!”
Tigre and Cricket On Family Reunions, Dead Bodies, and Ikea
Yesterday we noticed that a Bushwick resident posted this to Craigslist’s lost and found: “i lost my sense of self on july 18, 2013 – please send me an email if you or anyone you know may have information regarding this — important.” We figured Bushwick Elucidations might be able to help, but the lost soul hasn’t gotten back to us with any specifics. So this week, Tigre and Cricket tackle slightly less cosmic matters. Like how to care for Ikea furniture (hint: throw it away).
Kids Store Is Leaving ‘No Fun’ Williamsburg for Greenpoint
(Photo: Natalie Rinn)
When Kate Schmitz, the owner of Flying Squirrel, learned that she and Academy owner Mike Davis had to clear out of the space they share on N. 6th St., she decided to follow her longtime friend north.
Schmitz first met Davis when she was 20 and her roommate played in a band with him. About ten years ago, when Davis decided to bring an outpost of his East Village record shop to Brooklyn, they put their heads together and realized that selling baby stuff and vinyl in tandem was a no-brainer.
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More G Service May Be on the Horizon, Theatre 80 Owners Mugged
(Photo: Dima James)
The MTA gave itself an $8 million budget increase, which may lead to both increased G train service and M train service on the weekends. [Daily News]
The driver who crashed into East Village Farm & Grocery last month, 32-year-old Shaun Martin of Queens, is being charged with a DWI and vehicular assault. [Streetsblog] More →
Looks Like That Mystical Public Art Game We Told You About Is In Full Swing
The Portals just got real. (Photo: Manny Inoa.)
The third portal in the 13 Portals, an interactive game conceived by artists Nicolina and Pérola Bonfanti that’s taking over the East Village one abandoned doorway at a time, was unveiled this Saturday in an elaborate ceremony on 10th Street between Avenues B and C.
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Bureau of General Services Queer Division Raises Funds For a New Home
Greg Newton (facing camera, right) speaks to Shane Shane (back to camera) outside of BGSQD. (Photo: Joshua Kristal)
The Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, a trailblazing bookstore and event space on the Lower East Side, will launch an indiegogo campaign on Friday to secure a more permanent home.
Since November, Strange Loop Gallery has played temporary host to The Bureau. Originally meant to last two months, the arrangement between both operations went swimmingly, so a couple-month visit turned into eight.
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Bushwick Residents Call For Gun Control in Wake of Shooting Near Police Station
Scene of the shooting. (Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)
Local elected officials attended an open meeting in Bushwick today, at the site of a shooting in broad daylight on Saturday that left five people hospitalized. Residents, most of them Hispanic, gathered on the sidewalk at Menahan Street and Knickerbocker Ave, holding signs that demanded “Stop Gun Trafficking.”
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