Four short days after taking pictures of the street vendors who set up shop at the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, these riot gate installers installed riot gates in front of the former Chase Bank that stands there:
Installing riot gates.
Here is the new riot gate, fully installed — it blocks a lot of the graffiti!
I passed through Tompkins Square Park this afternoon, and I happened upon what surely must have been the Halloween Eve Punk Rock Show:
Halloween Eve Punk Rock Show.
I took a wide-angle picture because these things usually have no attendees, but today's show looked pretty crowded!
When I got to the stage, this band was playing:
This band.
I don't know their name, but… if The Ramones and The Clash had a baby, and in another part of town, Television created a baby clone of itself, and those two babies grew up and had a baby, it would be this band!
When they finished, this guy started vociferating:
This guy.
I've seen this guy at these punk rock shows before — he says exactly the same thing every time! I decided to walk around a bit.
This band is called Transgender Jesus. Everyone with a smart phone took either their picture, or a selfie!
"Can I take a selfie with you?"
In case you were wondering, that's the woman's costume! The guy… not a costume.
It even has a air vent in back!
Air vent.
That's East Village celebrity Chris Flash on the left — The East Village "A" List was out in force!
Finally, the next band went on. Here's a video that I like to call Ring Around The Rosie:
Since the closing of our local Chase Bank, the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place has become a very popular location for vandals and itinerant street-vendors alike.
The final installment of the Itinerant Street Vendor series focusses on this blue picket fence:
Blue picket fence.
Here is a close-up of the sign:
Close-up.
The funny thing is: it's left unattended at night, and no one's stolen it!
It's hard to imagine where you would put this thing.
Since the closing of our local Chase Bank, the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place has become a very popular location for vandals and itinerant street-vendors alike.
You might not have noticed from the pictures I showed (especially since I didn't call attention to it), but there is an itinerant bookseller on that corner too:
Itinerant book seller.
Most street booksellers put their books on tables, but this is a no-frills corner!
So if you're looking for something cheap to read, you could probably do worse than buying a book here.
Since the closing of our local Chase Bank, the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place has become a very popular location for vandals and itinerant street-vendors alike!
Two Saturdays ago, I walked past and saw this scene:
Contemplating their next move.
Wait — that's wasn't it. It's the paintings in front of the graffitied wall I wanted to capture.
As I was preparing to take a picture from the front, the artist himself photobombed me!
The artist himself.
I didn't get his name, but I told him the picture would go onto this blog — ten days ago!
Once upon a time, when old East Villagers were new East Villagers, there was a restaurant on St. Mark's Place called the beloved Yaffa Cafe.
Today, it is the soon-to-be-beloved Taberna Uma Tanga Portuguesa:
Taberna Uma Tanga Portuguesa, and a photographer.
I'm guessing this is going to be some kind of Greek/Portuguese fusion restaurant, because "Taberna" is Greek (and the color scheme is modern Cycladic-island) while "Uma Tanga Portuguesa" is Portuguese. It means "a Portuguese thong!*"
More evidence of its Greekiness is this array of vessels outside:
Array of vessels.
Finally, where once was the freaky mural, now there is a hearty mural:
Hearty mural.
Until now, I thought Hek Tad only pasted up photocopies of his name!
* * *
* When I look up "tanga" in translate.google.com, it says "moth", but when I look up "uma tanga" it says "a thong". It's obvious which translation I'm going to use — moths are scary!
Sadly, because the population of the East Village has grown older, the organizers of this event have seen fit to begin the festivities in a younger neighborhood, in the younger borough of Brooklyn. But fear not: they'll be here at 2:00 in the afternoon, just as East Villagers are waking up from their afternoon naps!
East Village Today will be there, as always, taking pictures of all the revellers — unless the weather is bad!
As every East Villager knows, when a dumpster arrives on the scene, it's going to be there for a very long time. So long that you might think there was never a time when it wasn't there!
But then, one day, it just vanishes, like this one on East 6th Street, leaving nothing behind but the outline of garbage and leaves:
Outline of garbage and leaves.
Meanwhile, further down 6th Street, another dumpster appears:
Another dumpster.
It's the dumpster circle of life… in the East Village Today!
You may remember from here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, that East Village Today has attended this event since its inception — since East Village Today's inception, that is!
Sadly, I must report that I didn't go this year. The weather forecast was for rain, so I stayed inside and watched Archer on Netflix. I have to tell you, that is a funny show!
Anyway, here is a picture of a taco dog I found on the internet, maybe even from this year:
Hot on the heels of filming Jonathan on East 3rd Street, more filmmakers are filming more films in the East Village!
Except this is not a movie, it's a TV show — and it's not called Jonathan, it's called The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel sign.
This next picture will come as a surprise to East Villagers, because it's a bar scene being filmed not at the beloved Vazac's!
The bar beneath the black tarp is the beloved Josie's Bar, on East 6th Street, famous for having a statue of a bear in front of it, that you can't see because of the black tarp!
Tarp-hidden bear statue.
But fear not, Vazac's has not been ignored! It's just been rebranded as Milston's Tavern:
Milston's Tavern.
Here is a close-up:
Close-up.
And for added effect, they built a subway entrance right outside!
Subway entrance.
In real life, there couldn't be a subway station there — the East Village was built on a swamp!
When setting automatic kerning, sometimes you use Metrics and other times you use Optical. When setting automatic kerning for numbers in Futura, however, you must always use Optical!
Numbers in Futura are particularly wonky, especially the number 1. This is what happened when the creators of the "90210 The Musical" sign, at the beloved Theatre 80 St. Marks, on St. Marks Place, used Metrics:
Bad kerning, especially around the "1".
But that's the least of it! In the notice board is a sign advertising the musical that uses an entirely different font!
Entirely different font.
I like Futura Bold as much as the next East Villager, but I like consistency more!
Also, they should have adjusted the kerning manually on this sign, eh?!
