Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Proletariat Bar

Where else but in the East Village would you find a bar with rare and unusual beer, make especially for the working man? And woman!

Proletariat Bar.

The Proletariat Bar is that place. Proletariat is French for "worker". You can see some workers inside, and the reflections of other workers outside. Maybe dot.com workers, or bankers.

East Villagers love their working roots!

#eastvillage #dotcom #proletariatbar #stmarksplace

Relaxing

Doing everything there is to do on a Sunday in the East Village is not easy! People get tired, and so do their feet. Sometimes you just have to take off your shoes and rest, like this guy:

Hanging out in the #EastVillageToday!

Anything goes in the East Village!

And if someone needs to put out their recycling, there's a bin right next to the one he's sitting on! There's always room to recycle in the East Village!

Art Car

If only there was a knee in this picture!

Art Car on Avenue A.

There was a lot going on in and around Tompkins Square Park this past Sunday.

Here is an artist selling (or maybe bartering) his paintings. Even his car is painted. You almost can't tell where the car ends and the canvases begin!

He painted the words "Hoy Love" on the side of the car. "Hoy" means "Today" in Spanish. In Spanish, this blog would be called East Village Hoy!

East Villagers love art. People were coming from every direction to look at his paintings, and car.

East Villagers love art.

Another busy Sunday in the East Village!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Unseen East Village

There are many places in the East Village that are hidden, even to those who live here. This is one of those places, a sinkhole on Avenue C and East 6th Street, hidden behind plywood boards:

Sink hole on Avenue C and East 6th Street.

Here is a close-up view:

A close-up view.

Sometimes it's better to not know what's going on. This is one of those times when it doesn't matter.

Where's Waldo?

Waldo comes to the East Village!

Texting in the dark.

Where Have All the Anarchists Gone?

They haven't gone anywhere! They're still here!

East Village anarchists for Ron Paul.

The libertarian strain runs strong in the East Village!

Crazy Guy Meets Crusties

I've seen this guy before, over on St. Mark's Place, haranguing people of all sorts.

Today he was communing with a group of crusties, who had bivouaced outside of 2 Bros. Pizza.

Crusties sing for their supper.

Another wacky day in the East Village!

I Am Coffee

I know you are, but what am I?

We are all coffee.

Peruvian Street Vendor

I was walking down East 7th Street, out taking pictures of the East Village on a Saturday afternoon, when I saw this:

Rickety gate and door, with stairs.

As you know, I am drawn to things like this, the things you see in the East Village today!

To the left, as you look at this, sat a guy from Peru, drinking a beer from a paper bag. I know he was from Peru because he was speaking with some people, one of whom asked him "Have you ever been to Peru?"

"I'm from Peru," he said, then something about his ex-wife.

The people he was talking to went on, and as I was about to take this picture he asked me, "Hey, could you watch this for me while I go up and get my cell phone?" He gestured to boxes of records he had sitting out on the sidewalk, that he was selling.

I am usually a helpful person, but I know when a disaster is in the making. I told him no, I wouldn't.

"It'll just be a second," he said.

"It's never just a second," I said.

"Two minutes," he said. "I'll just go up and be right back."

"Why don't you ask the people inside here?" and I gestured to the bar, Satsko, directly behind him, with the red thing on the door, above.

"That's a sake place," he said.

There you have it: you can trust strangers, but you can never trust a sake place! Not in the East Village! I took another picture.

Another picture of the rickety gate.

"Come on," he said, "you're taking a picture of my building."

"So?"

I finished my shot and started away. He asked one more time. I declined one more time. His persistence alone demonstrated to me I had made the right decision, not to watch his things while he was gone. If I had, I would be writing the story about how I should always trust my instincts!

Backstage Seating

Last Saturday, the Bread and Puppet Theater performed in El Jardin de Paraiso, on East 4th Street, as part of the LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival and as part of the People's Climate March:

Bread and Puppet Theater at El Jardin de Paraiso.

I don't know if you noticed, but sitting behind and to the right of the center puppet (as you look at them) is a woman who doesn't seem to notice that there's a performance going on around her.

"Down in front!"

Soon, she started texting:

"I have landed on a strange planet…" 

It never occurred to her to move:


East Villagers are renegades!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Another One Gets the Boot

I went on the People's Climate March on Sunday. I have pictures from that, but they're not in the East Village.

I do have a picture of another booted vehicle.


I wonder how they find these things. Vehicles with boot warrants on them, that is. I'm glad my car isn't booted. I would hate that.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Fire Wood

What happens to the trees that get cut down in the East Village? Some people think they get turned into logs for fire places:

Storing up for a cold winter.

This tree in Tompkins Square Park will provide plenty of warmth for someone:

The bendy tree will provide many crooked logs.

Hyphens

There should be a hyphen between "dine" and "in"!


Friday, September 19, 2014

I Found That Essence Rare

Bikinis is a sandwich shop on Avenue C, between East 4th and 5th Streets. A bikini is a kind of sandwich.

She doesn't think so, but she's eating for the H-bomb.

Joe Strummer Mural

Joe Strummer was a musician in a band called The Clash. This band was very popular in the East Village back in the old days — thirty years ago, or so. You couldn't really whistle any of their songs, but you could jerk your head up and down really fast to them!


Joe Strummer mural.

The Clash was so popular in the East Village that more than one mural was painted of him:

Joe Strummer, waving.

I don't know why none of the other band members have murals.

As the Twig is Bent…

…so grows the tree.


This tree in Tompkins Square Park is slated for removal. You can tell from the barricades and red caution tape surrounding it.

I don't know what they're waiting for. If they decided it's unsafe, they should have cut it down right away.

East Villagers don't like unsafe conditions!


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Another Funky Stretch

This building reminds me a bit of the one I just posted, but not quite. For one thing, no one is standing in front of it. Also, there are no Christmas lights!

This is the former location of the Angelina Cafe, on Avenue A, just below East 3rd Street:


Since it's unused, East Village artists have turned it into their canvas. The next Basquiat is waiting to be discovered!

#eastvillage #3rdstreet #angelinacafe #avenuea

Trashlike

Many, many years ago, while waiting for a friend, I found myself standing next to a trash can. It occurred to me at that moment that when you stand next to trash, you merge with it. You and the trash become a larger entity, that's part you and part trash.

I moved away from the trash can, and haven't stood beside one since.


I thought about that when I saw this East Villager standing against this wall on East 2nd Street, eating no less!

So, you might ask: "What about the restaurant on the right?" to which I would respond: "What do you think?"

It's definitely close, but the wooden screen and planter go a long way to separate it. They might want to clean that column with "VENX" scrawled on it, though.

The Christmas lights help too. I would go so far as to say that if you put Christmas lights around that mess on the left, you could rehabilitate it!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Long, Blue Braid

I think that I shall never see
a braid as long and blue as this
again in my life

Long, blue braid.

Avenue A Street Vendors

Avenue A is the place for open-air markets — sometimes, you feel like you're in Morocco!

Farmers market along Tompkins Square Park.

Further down:

Between East 2nd and 3rd Streets.

Where's my fez?!

#eastvillage #2ndstreet #3rdstreet #avenuea #tompkinssquarepark

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Subterranean Balcony

Sitting below street level, on their iPhones.


Just another day in the East Village.

Two More Things I Don't Like About Blogger

With WordPress, I could require first-time commenters' comments be approved, but once approved, their comments would not require moderation. I could also require approval for domain names or key words. Likewise, I could ban comments based on domain names and key words (not that I ever needed to do this). With Blogger, I can't do any of this.

With WordPress, I can view all of my Tags (Labels, in Blogger), and see how many posts each one is used in. I can add, delete, and modify them. With Blogger, I can't do any of this. I can't even see my list of Labels!

So, the jury's still out on how long I'll keep this blog on Blogger. In the meantime, here's a picture that has nothing to do with this:

The locked stairs at Cooper Union.

No Reason

Another sign on East 9th Street:


What else is there to say? East Villagers love their dilapidated signs!

Open Doors on September 13

When I first started this blog, I had no idea that I would be posting pictures of open doors. That's just one of the things I discovered about the East Village. This is on East 9th Street:

You can see all the way to the back!

(I just saw that someone is descending the stairs in this picture!)

This is on Stuyvesant Street:

Village Yokocho's door is open.

Closeup.

Spot the Contradiction

Can you spot the contradiction? If so, leave a comment!

Spot the contradiction.

Chicken Bus

As evening approached and I made my way home, I spotted the Chicken Bus on Avenue A! (It was raining and I had my camera in its bag, so they had already passed by. I caught up to them as they waited at the red light, hence the 3/4-profile view).

Roving partiers wave to passersby.

Even the rain can't dampen the spirits of these East Village revellers!

Curb Sitting

As in many other parts of the city, curb sitting is very popular in the East Village:

Curb sitters.

When you can't find a bench, and if scaffolding poles hurt your butt, there's always the curb!

9th Street Block Party

As I wrote in another post, East Villagers love street fairs.

Yesterday was the 9th Street Block Party, slated to begin at 11:00am. This is the scene looking eastward, at 11:13:

A lot of empty space, looking eastward.

Westward ho! 11:18:

A lot of empty space, looking westward.

Some people made it out on time:

Location, location, location!

I decided to walk around and capture other moments in the life of the East Village. An hour later, I made my way back, to discover…
Old Flat Top!

His master's voice.

Literally:

Playing for the crowd.

Not many people made it out in the hour I was gone:

Looking eastward, 12:34pm.

This guy was here, with his multi-colored glassware:

Multi-colored glassware vendor.

He was at the 10th Street Block Fair too!

Multi-colored glassware vendor with hat.

Street fairs are popular gathering points for East Village celebrities:

Jim Power, the Mosaic Man.

Later in the afternoon, it rained. Still, a good time was had by all!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Painted Buildings

Some businesses don't fix their decrepit signs, others paint like there's no tomorrow. Here are two examples of the latter:

The Bean, with a cool sky.

Korilla, future barbecue site.

If the paint job on The Bean is any indicator, Korilla will be immensely popular!

East Villagers love their artistic expression!

C Is For Crusties

I ventured out earlyish this morning and while walking down Avenue C I saw this:

Crusties in front of an open store.

You don't usually see crusties in front of an open store. I don't anyway. They usually congregate in front of closed stores, abandoned or otherwise, or in parks, but not open stores.

Maybe they have rabies.