DEC. 12, 2013: THE VILLAGER

The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

December 12, 2013 • $1.00 Volume 83 • Number 28

Cooper, community team up to create emergency system

BY SAM SPOKONY

PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

Bob Gruen in his Westbeth studio in front of silkscreen color prints of one of his famous photos of John Lennon.

Rock photographer’s key to success: Just roll with it

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

S

id Vicious had cut himself.

That was hardly unusual. He sliced himself all the time. But this wound was seriously deep and ugly, and it was festering.

It was January 1978, and the Sex Pistols were on their headline-grabbing, beer-and-spit-spewing, 12-day

tour of America. Riding along on their bus with them was top New York rock photographer Bob Gruen.

Vicious had taken a knife from one of the band’s bodyguards and, apparently skeptical of its sharpness, drawn it across his arm. It turned out that, yes, in fact, it was sharp, very sharp.

He was drinking steadily, which was probably numbing him to the pain from the now two-day-old,

bloody gash, along with numbing him to whatever else was going on.

In Atlanta, a hospital had refused to treat the surly English punk rocker, very likely because he was so difficult, Gruen speculates. Since no one else was doing anything about it, the photographer, a former Boy Scout, took it upon himself to clean out the GRUEN, continued on p. 8

A

group of Cooper Union students will soon work to develop a unique new tool to help residents of the Lower East Side — and perhaps, someday, people all over the world — cope with the destructive impact of future storms like Hurricane Sandy.

Under the direction of a longtime Cooper professor, and in association with Lower East Side neighborhood organizations, students from the university’s schools of art, architecture and engineering will collaborate to design a solarpowered product that can simultaneously provide LUMEN, continued on p. 20

Sad news on Astor Pl. as city shuts down longtime paper kiosk

BY ALBERT AMATEAU

W

hen vendor Jerry Delakas arrived on Tuesday morning at the newsstand on Astor Place that he has been operating for 27 years, he found the padlock broken on the pavement and a new lock in its place.

“I thought it was a breakin and the police had put on another lock, but then I spotted the sticker,” he told The Villager.

“This establishment has been operating illegally without a license,” said the sticker posted by the city’s Department of Consumer

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he organization that oversees the High Line said on Monday that it’s not sure how a rare breed of cockroach — which has never before been spotted in the U.S. — ended up in the popular elevated park.

On Monday it was reported that Periplaneta japonica, a species of roach that can apparently survive New York’s cold winter weather, was first seen on the High Line by an exterminator in 2012. The Periplaneta japonica can reportedly survive subfreezing weather, and is unique among roaches in its ability to walk on ice.

The beastly bug — also known as the Japanese cockroach and the Yamato cockroach — has entered the news because of a recent scientific article in the Journal of Economic Entomology, which confirmed that this was the roach’s first sighting on American soil.

“We spotted species Periplaneta japonica last year and, as with all insects and other creatures that inhabit the space, have been monitoring any impact,” a High Line

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spokesperson said. “Fortunately, we do not believe this insect is having a negative impact on the park.”

Previous reports speculated that the bug might have come to the High Line through foreign soil imports, but the park’s operating body implied that that assumption is, at best, very unlikely.

“The [scientific] study speculated the source of the insect’s arrival, but we understand it did not check other parks, natural spaces and buildings nearby — so it’s truly anyone’s guess!” the High Line spokesperson said. “We source our plants through plant nurseries located mostly in the northeastern U.S., which go through routine U.S.D.A. inspections to identify harmful pest/disease issues. No issue was raised with us.”

Although the japonica roaches haven’t yet caused any noticeable problems around the area, the High Line crew will apparently be ready to act if the need arises.

“Our team of experts will continue to keep an eye on it,” the spokesperson said.

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FILE PHOTO

Did these Santas know the route at last year’s SantaCon? Does anyone known the route — ever???

BLOGGERS OFF BASE ON SQUADRON? Although Jenifer Rajkumar says she’s raring to run for his state Senate seat, should it open up, according to Daniel Squadron — or at least his chief of staff — she should look elsewhere to fulfill her political ambitions. Bloggers have recently speculated that Squadron may be tapped for a post in Bill de Blasio’s administration, such as possibly Parks Department commissioner, and if that happens, Rajkumar would run to succeed him.

But Amy Spitalnick, his chief of staff, quashed those rumors.

“Senator Squadron will vigorously campaign for re-election on the strength of his record,” Spitalnick told us. “Anyone expecting a vacancy will be disappointed.” It’s funny but we recently kept seeing Spitalnick at the Talking Transition tent in Duarte Square, first when members of de Blasio’s transition team, Carl Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones Austin, toured the place, then when “BdB” himself came there. We naturally asked Spitalnick if SHE was eyeing a spot in the de Blasio administration. No, she told us, she was “just helping out.”

SANTACON PLEDGE A CON? There have been recent media reports that SantaCon has finally agreed to provide the route of its annual bar crawl to local police precincts, community boards and politicians. However, that’s not the whole story, state Senator Brad Hoylman told us on Tuesday — mainly because SantaCon still has not actually provided the route to anyone, and there are only a few days left until the Santas start swilling and staggering about on the morning of Sat., Dec. 14.

Hoylman wrote to the annual booze-fueled St. Nick-themed bar romp in October, requesting that the route be provided.

Seven other local politicians jumped on the sleigh, er, wagon recently, signing on to a joint letter along with Hoylman to SantaCon, again, stating forcefully that a route be produced and shared. Last week, Hoylman and all the local elected officials who signed on to the letter — or their representatives — held a 45-minute conference call with four SantaCon volunteer organizers. During the parley, the SantaCon reps promised they would deliver the route. “These are volunteers, people who have stepped forward,” Hoylman told us. “These were some of the original organizers from years ago who believe SantaCon has gone off track.” However, he added, “I’m reserving judgment to see what their ability is to enforce this agreement. But it’s a very positive step forward. As far as I know, the precincts are awaiting information. [SantaCon] said they would share with any precinct that asks. The proof will be in the pudding, so to speak,” he said, tossing in a quick, inadvertent Christmasthemed pun. “It’s a good first step, but it’s certainly no guarantee,” the state senator continued. “I don’t know if they were negotiating in good faith. … Does anything with the SantaCon volunteer organizers mean anything?” Hoylman asked rhetorically. “Look, it’s a flash mob — people come because they were invited through social media.” The politicians also stressed to the four SantaCon volunteers that the event needs to police itself for bad behavior — such as puking on the sidewalks, public urination, general rowdiness, etc. — and the volunteers said they would. “Again, it’s on them. It remains to be seen,” Hoylman said. “I’m not saying we solved this problem yet. How are they going to self-police thousands of people who come in from all of the metro region?” Hoylman provided a real name (i.e., not “Blitzen,” etc.) and phone number for one of the volunteers, and we called and only got a “Ho! Ho! Ho! You’ve reached the

New York City SantaCon line,” recorded greeting. We also emailed an address Hoylman gave us for SantaCon, and “Santa” himself eventually e-mailed us back: “I am not sure where you are getting your information (or lack of information) from? Are you expecting Santa to give the route to you? Santa has clearly been meeting with state legislators, the Parks Department, police precincts and local community boards to discuss the route.

Even a basic Google search can tell you that. [The e-mail linked to a recent Daily News article, “SantaCon working with politicians, police to turn naughty event nice.”] What exactly are you trying to find out?” we were challenged by the snippy “Santa.”

The route, we told them, that’s what everyone is trying to find out, not just us! So will they provide it? we asked again. “Santa is good on his word,” came the response — but still no route.

Meanwhile, Bob Gormley, district manager of Community Board 2, said that despite SantaCon’s claims, no one has ever contacted him from the event. “Nobody reached out to me — zero,” he told us late Wednesday afternoon. He said he was going to check with some of his district manager colleagues at Midtown community boards to see if SantaCon might have called them. The soused Santas do definitely come to C.B. 2, he said, noting, “I have seen them on Bleecker St.” As of now, all we know is the thirsty Santas will meet in Tompkins Square Park at 10 a.m., and then head to Brooklyn around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. Oh yeah — and there will be an estimated 30,000 of them.

DETECTIVE DORIS: As if Obamacare didn’t have enough problems, now Doris Diether, the legendary Community Board 2 activist and frequent target (though never victim) of phone scammers, says there’s another brewing crisis. Diether tells us she recently got a phone call from a man saying he was with the Affordable Healthcare Act and wanted to send her a new card for it. He asked her what bank she used, to which the senior sleuth — used to these sort of scams, and immediately suspecting foul play — answered “various.” Then, he cut to the chase and said he needed the digits of her bank account. “That’s when I hung up,” she told us. Diether has seen just about every scam under the sun, but this one threatens to bamboozle and fleece countless seniors — and perhaps others would be targeted, too, who knows? “This is new,” she said. So, surely, she called the police right away? “No, I called you!” Diether responded.

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Billy very ‘hoppy’ as charges reduced in toad case

BY SARAH FERGUSON

E

PHOTO FOR THE VILLAGER

arthalujah! Looks like the Manhattan district attorney is not throwing the book at Reverend Billy after all.

Last week The Villager reported that performance artist William Talen (a.k.a.

Reverend Billy) and Nehemiah Luckett, musical director of the Stop Shopping Choir, were facing up to a year in jail and a whopping $30,000 bail for staging a protest romp through a JPMorgan Chase bank in Midtown in September.

The pair were charged with riot in the second degree and menacing in the third degree after Talen and Luckett led choir members dressed in papier-mâché hats depicting the golden toad — a now-extinct amphibian of Central America — up an escalator and into the third-floor lobby of the Chase branch on Sixth Ave. and 56th St. to evangelize about the threat of climate change.

JP Morgan is one of the top financers of mountaintop removal coal mining and other fossil fuel projects around the world — industries that are the main engines of climate change.

According to prosecutors, several bank employees somehow mistook people singing in toad hats for bank robbers, and at

After the charges were reduced, Nehemiah Luckett, left, spoke outside court, as Reverend Billy, a.k.a. Bill Talen, gestured toward him. Standing between them were their defense attorneys, Wylie Stecklow, left, and Samuel Cohen.

least one of them reported a robbery to police, prompting the cops to arrest Talen and Luckett as they were waiting for the F train.

Talen was cast as the “ringleader using

violent tactics,” and the toads, prosecutors claimed, had approached customers with the ominous refrain, “We are coming for you.”

But faced with a barrage of incredulous

media coverage, the Manhattan D.A.’s Office sharply reduced the charges at a court hearing on Monday.

Assistant D.A. David Bornstein told the judge that after re-interviewing witnesses and reviewing the bank’s surveillance footage, he concluded that the group’s actions were “more in line with what we consider actual protest.”

Bornstein dropped the more serious charges and reduced the remaining offenses to Class B misdemeanor criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

Talen was offered a plea deal of one day of community service, while Nehemiah was offered an A.C.D. — Adjournment Contemplating Dismissal — meaning that if he does not get arrested again in six months, all charges will be dismissed and the record sealed.

That’s a big shift from how the case was presented at their arraignment in October.

Then, a prosecutor accused Talen of engaging in a “violent and terrifying masked criminal stunt, which demonstrates his utter disregard for the law.”

On Monday, the prosecutor termed the action a “musical presentation.”

Defense attorney Wylie Stecklow — who TOAD CASE, continued on p. 29

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December 12, 2013

TheVillager.com

Judge halts City Council’s suit

against NYCHA infill plan, for now

BY SAM SPOKONY

A

judge has dismissed a City Council lawsuit against the New York City Housing Authority’s plan to lease public land to private developers, declaring that the suit cannot be brought until NYCHA actually chooses the developers.

State Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern’s Dec. 4 ruling allows the land lease, or “infill,” plan — which would place predominantly market-rate housing on sites within eight of NYCHA’s Manhattan complexes, including five in the East Village and Lower East Side — to move forward for now. However, it’s still unclear whether Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio will take action to stop or modify the plan once he takes office in January.

A day after the judge’s decision, Council Speaker Christine Quinn released a statement that stressed that the door is still wide open for another lawsuit to be brought in the coming months — by whoever replaces her.

“This court decision is about timing — not an affirmation of NYCHA’s authority to implement the land lease initiative,” Quinn said. “The ruling does not prevent the City Council from returning to court on the merits if and when the NYCHA board approves a developer.”

NYCHA issued a request for expressions of interest, or R.F.E.I. — which precedes a request for proposals, or R.F.P. — to potential developers in August, and received all responses by Nov. 18. The Housing Authority has repeatedly claimed that its plan is the best way to provide necessary funding for tens of millions of dollars’ worth of building repairs across the city.

De Blasio could not be reached for comment following the Dec. 4 decision, but he has given somewhat conflicting remarks on this issue in the past.

“NYCHA land is not for luxury condos,” the mayor-elect said in a statement earlier this year, after which he implied that he would in fact consider such a plan, adding, “Any future infill plan must include substantial amounts of affordable housing, the hiring of NYCHA residents for construction and permanent jobs, and the resources generated must be used to improve conditions for NYCHA families.”

Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is a frontrunner to replace Quinn as speaker, and whose Upper Manhattan district includes three of NYCHA’s proposed land lease sites, has made it clear she thinks the plan — at least as it stands

now — should be halted.

In July, Mark-Viverito joined local Councilmembers Margaret Chin and Rosie Mendez in urging the Housing Authority to back off the plan.

“As a chorus of resident voices are raised [against it], we call for NYCHA to immediately cease the current [land lease] plan and instead work hand in hand with residents on solutions that are sound, sustainable and community-specific,” the three councilmembers said in joint testimony.

Before that, Mark-Viverito joined Chin, Mendez and a dozen other councilmembers in passing a resolution calling on the state Legislature to require NYCHA to follow the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP, in any lease or sale of its properties.

‘This ruling is about timing. It does not prevent the City Council from returning to court if and when NYCHA’s board approves a developer.’

TheVillager.com

Christine Quinn

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villagealliance.org If it were approved, NYCHA’s plan would grant developers 99-year leases to build new housing on sites within the grounds of the Lower East Side’s LaGuardia Houses, Smith Houses and Baruch Houses, as well as the East Village’s Campos Plaza and Meltzer Tower, and within Upper Manhattan’s Douglass Houses, Carver Houses and Washington Houses.

The housing would be so-called “80/20,” in which 80 percent of the units would be market rate, with the other 20 percent being affordable.

The land lease plan also faces an ongoing legal challenge from NYCHA tenants who are being represented by the Urban Justice Center and the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project.

That lawsuit — which claims NYCHA violated state and federal laws by failing to conduct environmental reviews and a floodplain analysis before issuing the R.F.E.I. for the infill plan — was filed in November. The case is pending.

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POLICE BLOTTER Subway cash grab

Police arrested Marry Ransom, 36, on Dec. 9 after she allegedly stole another woman’s cash and attacked her on a subway platform.

Around 12:30 p.m., officers on the upper level of the W. Fourth St. station were told by the conductor of a northbound E train that a person had just been robbed near the train’s rear. The alleged victim, 26, then told cops that she had dropped $160 on the platform, after which Ransom swiped the money and then grabbed her, tried to throw her onto the tracks and threatened to punch her in the face.

When Ransom was arrested as she got onto the train, officers said she tried to kick and flail her way out of being handcuffed. She was charged with robbery and resisting arrest.

Laptop snatcher

A Greenwich Village bar employee snatched a woman’s laptop while she was having a drink early on Dec. 4, police said.

The victim, 38, told cops she’d been in

3 Sheets Saloon, at 134 W. Third St., for about an hour when, around 2 a.m., she realized that her MacBook Air was missing from her bag.

After she reported the incident later that day, police checked the bar’s surveillance footage and spotted the employee, Ismael Martinez, 25, removing the computer. He was arrested at the bar that evening and charged with grand larceny.

Phone thief busted

Vigilant officers were able to catch a thief in the act early on Dec. 3, as he reportedly tried to rip off a woman on a West Village sidewalk.

Cops said they spotted Darrell Vosper, 35, near the corner of Hudson and Perry Sts. around 6:45 a.m., as he was struggling with the 44-year-old woman, who was screaming for help. After police pulled Vosper away from her, the woman said that he had tried to take her cell phone out of her hand as they passed each other on the sidewalk.

Vosper was charged with attempted robbery. He was also later connected to

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two other crimes that took place on Dec. 1, for both of which he was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Best friends forever

Police arrested Joshua Schinasi, 32, on Dec. 5 after he reportedly tried to stop officers from writing his friend a summons for drinking in public.

Police said they were in the process of writing the ticket around 3:30 a.m., moments after spotting the friend with an open container at the corner of Bleecker St. and LaGuardia Place. But Schinasi and his friend then became “disorderly and aggressive,” and when the officers were about to handcuff his friend as a result, Schinasi allegedly lunged in to try to disrupt the arrest.

When officers then turned to handcuff him, Schinasi broke away and tried to flee. When he was finally apprehended, he reportedly told one of the cops, “I’m gonna find you in the club and smash your face in. I’m gonna beat you to a pulp.”

Schinasi was charged with obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Bag burglar

Police are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect wanted for a

burglary that occurred Thurs., Nov. 14, at 1:10 p.m. inside of 28 W. 11th St. According to police, the suspect forcibly entered an apartment and removed a handbag from the location.

Disgruntled driver

Are Kuwam, 29, was arrested Dec. 7 when he allegedly tried to prevent police from giving him a traffic ticket after they pulled him over on a West Village street.

Officers said they spotted Kuwam’s car switching lanes without signaling, and pulled him over around 4:30 a.m., near the corner of W. Ninth St. and Sixth Ave. They also found that the windows of his 2005 Dodge Charger were illegally tinted.

When one of the officers approached Kuwam’s vehicle and asked to see his license and registration, the driver reportedly responded by saying, “What? You a--holes have nothing better to do?”

Kuwam then refused to lower his passenger-side window after the officer’s partner requested he do so, police said.

And when both officers returned to their car in order to check Kuwam’s license, the disgruntled driver reportedly stepped out of his car. The cops arrested him after he refused multiple orders to get back in the vehicle.

Kuwam was charged with obstructing government administration.

Asleep on the tracks

Police arrested Brendan Duddy, 34, on Dec. 2 after they found him sleeping on the tracks at the W. 14th St. PATH station.

Around 7:15 a.m., bystanders on the platform told cops that they’d seen Duddy walking along the rails, after his friend had unsuccessfully tried to stop him. As operators suspended train service, officers jumped down below the platform and investigated, eventually finding him curled up in a cutout along the side of the tracks.

Upon being spotted by the officers, Duddy reportedly said, “They were trying to rob me.”

He was charged with criminal trespassing.

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Sam Spokony and Jefferson Siegel Surveillance camera image of alleged burglary suspect, provided by police.

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Hanging with Lennon, jetting with Zeppelin or bandaging GRUEN, continued from p. 1

PHOTOS BY BOB GRUEN

bass player’s wound with some alcohol, then closed it up with some butterfly bandages.

That’s one of Gruen’s defining characteristics: He just does it. In fact, that’s also why he was on the bus in the first place.

He had asked Malcolm McLaren, the band’s manager, if he could come along at the last minute, and it turned out there was one seat left.

“Yeah, I jumped on the bus,” Gruen recalled, during a recent interview in his Westbeth studio in the West Village. “Malcolm said, ‘Come along,’ and I did. It was very spur of the moment — like most things in my life. Malcolm said only 12 could come. They were on a bus in a parking lot ready to pull out. I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time, so I didn’t have to come home. … I woke up 10 days later in San Francisco.”

As for his impromptu field surgery on Vicious, Gruen said, “He appreciated it.”

As for the tour itself, it was bedlam.

“Oh yeah, people threw things at them all over the place,” he said. “They tried to encourage a hostile, anarchist atmosphere.”

Gruen’s assessment of the Sex Pistols: “They were just the most obnoxious….

I didn’t know what the fuss was about.

They weren’t very good.”

ICONIC ROCK IMAGES In a decades-spanning career, Gruen has photographed everyone and anyone in rock ’n’ roll. Some of his shots are among rock’s most iconic images.

At the other end of the spectrum from the Sex Pistols was John Lennon, Gruen’s friend, who famously advocated for peace and love. It was Gruen who captured the signature shot of the ex-Beatle wearing a sleeveless “New York City” T-shirt, and the one of Lennon flashing a peace sign in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Gruen grew up just outside New York City on Long Island. His father was an immigration lawyer and his mother a real estate lawyer.

“So I grew up knowing how to negotiate,” he quipped. “It’s helpful if you’re trying to get a backstage pass.”

As a youth he started taking photos with his dad’s Minolta. His mom’s hobby was photography, so that helped hone his eye.

However, without going into detail, he said of his family picture, “The whole thing was a situation I left as soon as I could.”

He tried a couple of colleges, but, as he put it, “It didn’t work out.”

So, 1965 found Gruen, at age 18, moving to the Village, sharing a Sullivan St. apartment with friends in a psychedelic folk band, the Holy Modal Rounders.

“They did the vocals for the movie ‘Bar-

8

December 12, 2013

Tina Turner was dancing off the stage with a strobe light on her in this The story behind how this famous 1974 shot of John Lennon came about 1970 photo. “I opened the camera for like one second,” the photograhas been “embellished” many different ways, Gruen notes. Contrary to one pher explained of how he got the effect. For most photos, the camera popular version, Gruen did not cut off the sleeves right then and there, but aperture is open only 1/60th of a second. had done it several years earlier.

barella.’ That’s their claim to fame,” he noted.

His photos of the band caught the eye of the record label’s publicity department, and that got him started on his way shooting top acts, such as Tommy James and the Shondells (“Crimson and Clover”).

Gruen went on to photograph Ike and Tina Turner, and thoroughly enjoyed working with them. He said that, at the time, he wasn’t aware of Ike’s abusive behavior toward Tina.

LENNON’S PERSONAL LENSMAN He met Lennon while photographing him for an article. They hit it off and he became the personal photographer for John and Yoko.

“When they wanted a picture taken, they would call me,” he said.

For example, Gruen took a very intimate shot at the Dakota of a ponytailed John wearing a white bathrobe holding a newborn Sean as a smiling Yoko looks on. But Gruen said he didn’t want that one published in The Villager because it’s too private.

Regarding the photo of Lennon in front of the Statue of Liberty, it was actually Gruen’s idea. Most of his shots aren’t set up or posed, but this one was. It was October 1974. Lennon was 34, Gruen 29.

“I took it to help John Lennon in his deportation case,” he explained. “He was the kind of guy I thought we should keep here. I didn’t think we should be throwing him out.

I thought we were supposed to be welcoming great artists. Nixon thought Lennon had been thinking of leading a protest against the Republican Convention. Lennon was propeace and anti-Vietnam. And it was the first time 18-year-olds could vote.”

Ultimately, the defense proved that the U.S. government had unfairly singled out the singer for deportation.

Gruen visited Liberty Island last year, and noticed many people striking the Lennon peace-sign pose in front of Lady Liberty.

“In just the short time we were there, a lot of people were copying that pose,” he noted. “I think a lot of people think of John Lennon like they think of the Statue of Liberty — ‘peace and freedom.’ ”

STORY OF THE NYC T-SHIRT As for the T-shirt shot, taken in August 1974, Gruen said there are many inaccurate accounts about it.

“People have embellished the story of it,” he said.

One version has it that Gruen was about to take the shot, but felt it just needed something more — or less — so he ripped the sleeves off right then and there.

“The T-shirts were sold, not in a store, but by a guy on the sidewalk in Times Square,” Gruen explained. “I would buy them, and just cut the sleeves off because I felt it gave it a better New York City look. I used to give them to friends.

“Years later, Lennon was back from his ‘Lost Weekend.’ He had a penthouse apartment in the East 50s — he wasn’t back with Yoko. He was back from L.A., sobering up.

I didn’t know if he still had the shirt. It was during a session for an album cover.”

As for why the photo has become one of GRUEN, continued on p. 9

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Sid Vicious, rock photographer always just rolled with it GRUEN, continued from p. 8

the best known of Lennon, Gruen said, “I don’t know what it is…. . I just believe in good, powerful graphics. I’m proud to be from New York. I like the energy of the city, and it was just a cool thing to say back then.

He’s very accessible [in the photo] — yet he’s still a pop star with the sunglasses.”

Neither of the two Lennon photos was immediately popular when they were taken in the early 1970s, but they became so after Lennon’s death in 1980.

BONDED WITH EX-BEATLE

PHOTOS BY BOB GRUEN

Gruen both admired Lennon and clicked with him.

“Oh yeah, he was a very cool guy,” he said. “He was very smart, very perceptive, very funny. So he was always fun to hang out with because he was always making jokes. He had a cynical sense of humor — we shared that in common. We could relate.”

What about the flip side of Lennon’s personality, the troubled, fragile side?

“I didn’t really get into psychoanalyzing him,” Gruen stated bluntly. “He was a friend. I didn’t ask him about his mother.

You don’t interview your friends.”

However, he did share an anecdote about Lennon, about how the photographer stopped by the Dakota one time and the rock star, as he often did, was watching television.

“He liked to watch TV a lot,” Gruen noted. “He watched everything. I complained that I was trying to talk to him but couldn’t because of the TV. He said, ‘Well, you can talk if the window’s open. This is my window to the world.’

“I’m sure he would have a field day with the Internet,” Gruen reflected. “John would have used it for peace and freedom and being funny.”

The lensman is very proud of his connection to Lennon.

“It gives me a chance to be able to keep talking about peace and freedom,” he said, “which is a good message to have.”

On a whim, singer Robert Plant asked Gruen to take this shot of Led Zeppelin in front of their jumbo-sized plane, the Starship, in 1973. It became one of the band’s best-known images.

“Because I wasn’t a girl, they hardly spoke to me,” he said. “I mean, they were mostly into girls.” Ironically, he noted with a smile, “Nowadays, they talk to me.”

Although he was documenting rock’s lavish lifestyles, he wasn’t necessarily making too much cash himself, a situation that continues to this day, he noted.

“It’s not that lucrative — because people are stealing stuff off the Internet,” he said.

“I do sell signed prints through galleries, but I’m not rolling in dough.”

Yet, the positive part of people ripping off his photos from the Internet, he said, is that, “The more people see it, it makes the actual prints more valuable.”

(For this article, Gruen sent high-resolution digital images for the print version, but lower-resolution versions, with his name stamp on them, for online use.)

Now, he said, he’s more into the “history” of rock photography, which is something he can provide through his countless classic prints.

MAKING THE MAX’S SCENE Gruen also spent a lot of time hanging out with the New York Dolls, the genderbending, early punk band, and became part of the Max’s Kansas City scene. He got to know Blondie and Patti Smith.

Unlike others, he never liked watching TV at night, instead preferring to go out to Max’s. It was just what he would do in the evenings.

“I enjoy going out to clubs. I enjoy seeing bands play,” he said. “I enjoy meeting people. And I turned out to be not wellsuited to working a 9-to-5 job. Luckily, I was a good photographer.”

After the Sex Pistols’ U.S. tour, he went to England, with McLaren’s phone number being his only contact there. He covered the Sex Pistols again, but also The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Elvis Costello and Billy Idol, among others.

“My life has always been ‘one thing leads to another,’ ” he said. “You wake up in the morning, the phone rings, and you make the best of it.”

FLYING HIGH WITH ZEPPELIN

CHANGES IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Although he spent far less time with them, Gruen also captured one of the best-known shots of Led Zeppelin, with the band posing in front of their privately chartered Boeing 720, the Starship.

“That’s on the very first roll of film I took of them,” he recalled. “I think we were on the way to Cincinnati or something like that. At the time, I took four or five shots, just a little souvenir for the band — it turned out to be one of the icons of ’70s rock excess. I think Robert Plant asked me to shoot it.”

However, Gruen had little interaction with Led Zeppelin during the actual flight.

Things have changed so much in photography, first with the advent of autofocus in 1990 and later digital photography, and then the explosion of the Internet. He’s been shooting digitally since 2000.

But Gruen, 68, is not one to bemoan change. Nor does he romanticize the past over the present.

“There was so much going on,” he said of rock photography’s heyday. “Now, with the Internet, there seems to be more, but there’s less, because everyone’s home with the Internet with their little window. You

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The Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious sported a sliced-up torso during the band’s anarchic 1978 American tour. Fortunately, photographer Bob Gruen had cleaned and bandaged a deep, self-inflicted cut on the inside of the bass player’s left elbow. The bandage is visible in this photo. However, by one account, Vicious later tore it off and flung the bloody mess out into the crowd at one of the shows.

But Gruen said he didn’t see that. There are a lot of conflicting accounts about what happened on the tour, he noted. “It’s like ‘Rashomon,’ ” he said, “depending on where you were at the time.”

GRUEN, continued on p. 14

December 12, 2013

9

Loving spirit of Tompkins tree keeps shining brightly

BY HEATHER DUBIN

L

PHOTO BY HEATHER DUBIN

ight snow only added to the holiday mood on Sunday for the 22nd annual tree-lighting at Tompkins Square Park. Many neighborhood residents and local vendors came together to celebrate the season, and participate in a tradition sponsored by the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition.

There was caroling led by actors in Shakespearean costume from the Theater for the New City, with musical accompaniment by the Mandel & Lydon Trio on trombone, guitar and piano. A crowd of about 300, adults and children alike, sipped hot chocolate with marshmallows, and cider, compliments of Veselka restaurant.

Albert Fabozzi, president of the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition, began the tree-lighting ritual 22 years ago in honor of Glenn Barnett, his late partner, who died of AIDS. The couple were together for 18 years, and Barnett was an advocate of the park for the community. The anniversary of his death was Sunday.

“I think my boyfriend would be very happy if he was alive today to see this,” Fabozzi said.

Fabozzi, who lives on E. Seventh St., has been an East Village denizen for 30 years, and was chairperson of Community Board 3 in 1992 when the eight-foot evergreen was planted. The tree now rises more than 30 feet tall.

“This is my home, this is my family,” he said. “I fought to renovate the park. It was a battle — believe me, I had police protection.”

Fabozzi’s efforts have paid off, and Tompkins Square Park has evolved into a beautiful and vibrant place for everyone in the community to enjoy.

Albert Fabozzi handing out raffle tickets to Melanie Kletter and her two daughters, Julia and Layla, at the tree-lighting event.

“Every year I worry about the weather,” he said. “It rains, it snows, and we still get a crowd. It’s very happy, it’s the neighborhood.”

Rain did not deter locals at last year’s event, and the frigid, snowy weather this past Sunday was not a showstopper either.

The Carolers of Olde New York energized the crowd with “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls” and “Feliz Navidad,” and everyone sang along.

“The spirit is so incredible,” Fabozzi said.

Heather Mihalic and her husband, Reid Betz, live on 14th St.,

Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua

and attended with their two children, ages two and four.

“This is our second year,” she said. “I love this, it’s such a cute neighborhood thing. It’s so much easier than going Uptown for the Rockefeller tree.”

Mihalic also applauded the event’s coordinators, and was elated about the weather.

“It’s snow, it’s Christmas,” she added.

Melanie Kletter, another neighborhood resident, from Avenue C, was with her two daughters, Julia, three and a half, and Layla Ferrara, one and a half. Although they have lived in the East Village for six years, the family has never witnessed the tree-lighting.

A friend tipped Kletter off this year.

“We’re in the park all the time and we like to do things in the neighborhood,” she said. “It’s a fun way to be outside.

Michael Bailey traveled from where he lives in Murray Hill to see the tree.

“Albert really promotes this, and I’m happy to come support him,” he said of Fabozzi.

“Cher isn’t there,” Bailey said, as he nodded toward the performers. “But there are a lot of people here. It’s not about a big headliner. It’s a nice event that brings the community together.”

As the snow picked up speed, Bailey speculated that there might be a white Christmas this year. Nearby, Fabozzi was busily distributing raffle tickets to children. Dinosaur Hill, the local kids’ clothing and toy store, donated $25 gift certificates for the occasion. Fabozzi noted that he gave out more raffle tickets this year than ever before.

The annual tree-lighting occurs on Sunday during the second week of December, and the tree remains lit until the end of January.

“My biggest joy is when I plug in the tree,” Fabozzi said.

Staffed by the Franciscan Friars Shrine C hurch o f S aint A nthony o f P adua adua Serving Soho, Greenwich Village, Hudson Square, and Tribeca

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Corner of West and Sullivan Streets  New York NY 10012 Staffed

by Htouston he Franciscan Friars

Serving Soho, Greenwich Hudson Square, and Tribeca 212-­‐V7illage, 77-­‐2755  www.stanthonynyc.org Serving S oho, G reenwich V illage, H udson S quare, and Tribeca Corner of West Houston and Sullivan Streets  New York NY 10012 Corner of West Houston a nd S ullivan S treets 

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Schedule Christmas Services Schedule of oCf hristmas Services

December December 24 24

December 24

5:00 PM

25 CARMINE & BLEECKER Sts., Greenwich Village, NY 5:00 PM 5:00 PM

Christmas Vigil Mass 212-989-6805 Christmas Vigil Mass Christmas Vigil Mass 11:30 PM Staffed by the Missionaries of St. Charles/Scalabrinians 11:30 PM 11:30 PM REV. WALTER A. TONELOTTO, C.S., PASTOR Christmas Carols Christmas Carols Christmas Carols 12:00 AM

OF HOLIDAY MASSES 12:00 AM SCHEDULE

12:00 AM Christmas Eve, 12/24:

Solemn Midnight Mass

Solemn Midnight M ass Solemn Midnight Mass Family Mass at 5 p.m., 8 p.m., & Midnight

11:30p.m. Christmas Concert

December 25

Christmas Day, 12/25:

December 25 9 a.m., 12:15 p.m. (English), 11:00a.m. (Italian) 9:00 AM December 25 1:30 p.m. (Brazilian), 3:00 p.m. (Filipino) 9:00 AM Christmas Mass New Years Day, 1/1/14: 9:00 AM 9 a.m., Christmas Mass 12:15 p.m., & 6 p.m. (English) 11:00 AM 11:00 AM Christmas Mass Christmas Mass

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December 12, 2013

Christmas Mass 11 a.m. (Italian), 3:00 p.m. (Filipino) CONFESSIONS 11:00 AM 30 Minutes before the weekend Masses or upon request at the rectory.

Christmas Mass TheVillager.com

City suddenly padlocks popular Astor Place newsstand DELAKAS, continued from p. 1

Gil Santamarino, took the case to State Supreme Court, the Appellate Division and finally to the Court of Appeals in Albany, the state’s highest court, but they all ruled in favor of D.C.A. Arthur Schwartz, a Democratic district leader and Community Board 2 member, has now taken on the battle, taking over from Santamarino.

Another issue is that D.C.A. has imposed a $37,000 fine against Delakas for operating illegally — $100 a day from the time the Court of Appeals decision came down on Oct. 28, 2012.

Local City Councilmembers Rosie Mendez and Dan Garodnick, the latter the chairperson of the Council’s Consumer Affairs Committee, have weighed in on Delakas’s behalf.

Schwartz said he hopes that Mayor-elect Bill De Blasio’s new D.C.A. commissioner, replacing Jonathan Mintz, would recognize Jerry Delakas’s right to continue running the newsstand.

In fact, for the last half year or so, the word had been that the Astor Place newsstand issue would be laid over for the next administration to deal with.

FILE PHOTO

Affairs.

It appeared to be the end of a very long battle that Delakas has been waging for the last couple of years with D.C.A. But there remained one last hope: On Wed., Dec. 11, Delakas’s new lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, went to New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan to seek a temporary restraining order to allow time for another appeal. The issue was still pending at The Villager’s press time.

Delakas has been trying to hang on, with the support of countless regular customers and neighbors, especially Martin Tessler, a resident of Stewart House, a nearby co-op apartment building on E. 10th St. Delakas began working at the stand nearly three decades ago as an assistant to the franchise holders, Abraham and Stella Schwartz. After they died, he ran the stand for the subsequent franchise holder, Katherine Ashley, who died in 2006. Jerry then ran it for Katherine’s husband, Sheldon, who died in 2009.

D.C.A. in 2010 ruled that Delakas’s operating the stand was illegal because the permit was not in his name. His lawyer,

Jerry Delakas has operated the Astor Place newsstand for 27 years.

The Church of the Ascension The Church of St. Luke in the Fields

(An Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York)

487 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 www.stlukeinthefields.org • 212.924.0562

Fifth Avenue at 10th Street • New York, NY 10011

The Season of Advent Please join us!

Sundays

CHRISTMAS SERVICES AT ST. LUKE’S CHRISTMAS EVE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24 5:00pm: Christmas Pageant & Eucharist 9:30pm: Prelude & Congregational Carols 10:00pm: Festive Choral Eucharist Midnight: Festive Reception (School Gym)

CHRISTMAS DAY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25

Holy Eucharist at the Side Altar at 9 a.m.

Holy Eucharist with Choral Music at 11 a.m.

Meditations and Sacrament Service at 7 p.m.

Monday through Friday

Holy Eucharist at the Side Altar at 6 p.m.

A Living Nativity – Saturday, December 21 Front Garden on Fifth Avenue 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.

The Feast of the Nativity

Christmas Eve (Tuesday) December 24th Family Service with Children’s Choir 5 p.m.

Music for the Christmas Vigil at 10:30 p.m.

Festival Eucharist at 11 p.m.

Christmas Day, (Wednesday) December 25th Holy Eucharist with Hymns at 11a.m.

10:30am: Choral Eucharist

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December 12, 2013

11

Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005

by New York Press Association PUBLISHER JENNIFER GOODSTEIN

EDITOR IN CHIEF LINCOLN ANDERSON

ARTS EDITOR

SCOTT STIFFLER

REPORTERS

HEATHER DUBIN SAM SPOKONY

CONTRIBUTORS IRA BLUTREICH TERESE LOEB KREUZER JEFFERSON SIEGEL JERRY TALLMER

ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR TROY MASTERS

SENIOR DESIGNER MICHAEL SHIREY

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS CHRIS ORTIZ ARNOLD ROZON

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ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES ALLISON GREAKER MIKE O’BRIEN ANDREW REGIER REBECCA ROSENTHAL JULIO TUMBACO

CIRCULATION SALES MNGR. MARVIN ROCK

PUBLISHER EMERITUS JOHN W. SUTTER

Member of the New York Press Association

Member of the National Newspaper Association

The Villager (USPS 578930) ISSN 0042-6202 is published every week by NYC Community Media LLC, 515 Canal Street, Unit 1C, New York, N.Y. 10013 (212) 229-1890. Periodicals Postage paid at New York, N.Y. Annual subscription by mail in Manhattan and Brooklyn $29 ($35 elsewhere). Single copy price at office and newsstands is $1. The entire contents of newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2011 NYC Community Media LLC.

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12

December 12, 2013

Mandela, an inspiration for all humanity EDITORIAL

T

he world lost a towering figure last Thursday with the passing of Nelson Mandela at age 95.

The father of a free South Africa, the great humanitarian and leader endured more than a quarter century in prison, most of it under extremely harsh and cruel conditions.

His struggle became the symbol of the fight to end South Africa’s racist apartheid system.

Many of us remember the South African divestment campaigns that swept American college campuses in the 1980s. That effort definitely contributed to bringing an end to apartheid and to Mandela’s finally being released from prison in 1990.

Today, students at New York University, The New School and elsewhere across the country advocating for their schools to divest from major fossil fuel companies take inspiration from Mandela

and the anti-apartheid divestment campaign that occurred during a previous generation.

Mandela was a profoundly inspirational figure. President Obama has cited his transformative influence on his life.

Even arch conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Ted Cruz recognize the importance of Mandela, and what his struggle and what he stood for mean for all of mankind. “Real conservatives” have been blasting Gingrich for

this, charging that Mandela was, in fact, a communist. Yes, he was, that’s true — but that doesn’t diminish in any way the profound significance of what he accomplished.

Mandela embodied humility, and also forgiveness. After his liberation from prison, he even remarkably found it within him to befriend his former jail guard.

Sadly, the daily tabloids have chosen to focus on ridiculously trivial matters, such as Obama’s

“selfie” that he took of himself and the Danish prime minister at Mandela’s memorial service, or the sign language interpreter who, well…wasn’t. Hey, thank God, at least they didn’t put Lindsay Lohan on the front page again. Yet, many people were angered by such salacious news judgment regarding such an important occasion.

Thankfully, most of us will never have to go through what Mandela did during his long incarceration on Robben Island and other prisons. But, thankfully, Mandela never gave up — and his steadfastness, fortitude and courage helped forever change South Africa…and our world.

And, thankfully, it was Mandela upon whose strong shoulders such an inhumane burden, and then, after his release — as he became his country’s leader — such great responsibility, was thrust. Very few others could have done it.

As they used to say during the struggle: Amandya! Away Tu! …

Amandya! Away Tu!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What will C.B. 2 do about it?

To The Editor: Re “Blogger skewers conservancy over hot dog purge in the park” (news article, Dec. 5): The privatization (a.k.a. giveaway) of public resources — parks, schools, libraries, hospitals — is a dangerous and undemocratic trend. No doubt the conservancy made an attractive proposal to Community Board 2, but no good can come from dealing with a dishonorable and deceptive group.

Hopefully, C.B. 2 will have the courage to reopen and investigate the conservancy and its true motives.

Many thanks to Lincoln Anderson and Cathryn Swan for their excellent reporting on the conservancy’s ethically challenged behavior.

nity wants? I don’t think so. But there was only minor protest, and so it goes, but should not.

Bette Dewing

Questions must be answered To The Editor: Re “Blogger skewers conservancy over hot

dog purge in the park” (news article, Dec. 5): This is all very troubling. Despite the claim by the Washington Square Park Conservancy’s president, the Central Park Conservancy’s bylaws can indeed can be found online: http:// www.centralparknyc.org/assets/pdfs/by-laws.

Those of us living Downtown have been pushing for online posting of bylaws for park conserLETTERS, continued on p. 19

IRA BLUTREICH

A.S. Evans

Conservancies hate hot dogs To The Editor: Re “Blogger skewers conservancy over hot dog purge in the park” (news article, Dec. 5): The official park group up here on the Upper East Side banned hot dog stands in Carl Schurz Park, too — but is it what the larger commu-

Bill Bratton is in the spotlight again!

TheVillager.com

Looking back, looking ahead on preservation progress TALKING POINT

BY ANDREW BERMAN

T

he end of one year and the start of another is always a good time for reflecting back and looking forward. So, too, is the end of one mayoral administration and the beginning of another, especially when considering progress on neighborhood historic preservation efforts.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has been doing just that kind of reflection, and frankly, we’ve been surprised by what we found — both in terms of how much progress has been made in securing landmark and zoning protections, and how much of our neighborhoods still remain vulnerable to inappropriate demolition and development.

For example, over the last 10 years, we’ve been able to help secure landmark designation of more than 1,000 buildings in the Village, East Village and Noho, as well as community-friendly, “contextual” rezonings of nearly 100 blocks. This amounts to a virtual small city of preservation in our ever-changing metropolis.

The new landmark designations we’ve helped secure over the past decade include eight new historic districts or district extensions extending across our neighborhoods — one in the Meatpacking District, two in the West Village, one in the South Village, two in Noho, and two in the East Village. A ninth historic district we have proposed in the South Village will be voted upon before the end of the year, and a tenth historic district, also in the South Village, is supposed to be considered directly thereafter.

With these new designations, we expanded the Greenwich Village Historic District for the first time since 1969, protecting previously vulnerable parts of the West and South Village; extended landmark protections to almost the entirety of Noho; and increased tenfold the historic district protections in the East Village.

We also helped secure individual landmark designation for more than 40 buildings. Among them are more than a dozen early 19th-century houses in the far West Village and East Village, in Hudson Square and near Washington Square. These individual landmarks also included industrial complexes like the West Village’s Westbeth and the former Wheatsworth factory near Avenue D; modernist masterpieces like the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers complex and its Picasso sculpture; historic former schools and synagogues in the East Village, sailors’ hotels in the West Village, and department stores on 14th St.; and cultural landmarks like Webster Hall and the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on Washington Place, just to name a few. (You

TheVillager.com

can get more details on all these landmark designations at www.gvshp.org/10.)

These new designations cover huge swaths of our neighborhood that had been passed over by a prior generation’s efforts to preserve our architectural and cultural heritage.

But landmarking is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to preserving our neighborhoods. A surprisingly large portion of the Village and East Village also had totally inappropriate zoning that encouraged hotel or dormitory development of a vastly outsized scale.

That’s why we also fought hard over the last 10 years to secure four different contextual rezonings — two in the East Village, covering nearly the entire neighborhood, and two in the West Village. These rezonings established strict height limits for new development where none existed before, and eliminated zoning incentives for dormitory or hotel development.

These landmarking and zoning protections will pay dividends for decades to come, as they preserve the human scale and historic character of our neighborhoods while preventing inappropriate demolitions and out-of-character new construction.

We saw some of the benefits right away.

In the West Village, the rezoning blocked an oversized hotel planned on Perry St. and an out-of-context mixed-use project on Charles St. In the East Village, the rezoning will help ensure that we never see construction of another 26-story dorm like New York University’s Founders Hall, built on the site of the old St. Ann’s Church on E. 12th St. There were some even more dramatic victories, as well.

In the Meatpacking District, we blocked a zoning variance that would have allowed a 500-foot-tall tower at Washington and W. 13th Sts. On Bleecker St. in the South Village, we blocked N.Y.U.’s plans for a 400-foot-tall hotel and office tower, partially through landmark designation of the Silver Towers complex. And at 13th St. and Fifth Ave., we helped convince The New School to drop plans for an enormous 400-foot-tall building that would have required zoning variances and been roughly twice the size of the building eventually constructed on that site.

Each of these planned developments would have been the tallest ever built in the Village.

Of course we did not stop every bad development. But even when we didn’t, we moved the needle considerably.

At Chelsea Market, after significant pushback, the original plan for additions to that historic complex were reduced considerably in size, a proposed hotel removed, the original outlandish designs for the additions made more contextual, and additional funding provided for longpromised affordable housing. The project was still wrong, but considerably less so due to forceful opposition.

SCENE

On Thurs., Dec. 5., the day Nelson Mandela died at age 95, Carvel, 14, posed next to a drawing of the great South African freedom fighter and leader outside Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Carvel said, due to his age, he didn’t know much about Mandela, but that he was a great person.

At the Rudin development on the former St. Vincent’s Hospital site, though the rezoning was passed over our objections, after a considerable outcry, six historic buildings originally slated for demolition were instead saved and reused.

And while we are now in court seeking to block the N.Y.U. 20-year expansion plan, stiff resistance helped lead to a nearly 25 percent reduction in that plan’s size, and the elimination of the aforementioned proposed 400-foot-tall Bleecker St. tower.

Of course, there’s no denying there have been painful losses, as well, ranging from beloved neighborhood businesses, to historic buildings like the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, to critical institutions like St. Vincent’s.

But over all, the progress we have made over the last decade, during one of the most development-friendly mayoral administrations in history, has been undeniable.

Of course, the enormous hurdles we still face are equally formidable.

Recently enacted state legislation allowing the sale of millions of square feet of “air rights” from the Hudson River Park opens a potential Pandora’s Box of oversized development along our neighborhood’s western edge.

And in spite of our considerable advances over the past 10 years, large stretches of our neighborhood remain without landmarks protections, including most of the East and South Village — though the latter may soon change with landmark designations promised by the city before the end of the year. Inexplicably, most of University Place and the surrounding blocks also still lack landmark protections, as does virtually all of W. 14th St. and most of W. 13th St.

Large stretches of our neighborhood are also still zoned to allow out-of-scale development and encourage hotel and dorm construction. For example, under the existing zoning, N.Y.U.’s Vanderbilt Hall Law School on Washington Square South could today be replaced by a 300-foot-tall dormitory.

There’s other critical work to be done, as well. We need to discourage the proliferation of chain stores while preserving our valued independent businesses and arts spaces, which add so much to the character of our neighborhood. And we need to fight well-funded misinformation campaigns by the Real Estate Board of New York that portray landmarking as an enemy of affordable housing and economic vitality — assertions which, if not thoroughly challenged, will affect public opinion and policy.

The mayor, City Council leadership and borough president will change shortly, but the current robust real estate market and powerful developer lobby probably won’t change anytime soon. Thus, in the years ahead, we can expect to find new opportunities for further progress on the preservation front, but also considerable new and ongoing challenges.

Which means now is the time for us to recommit ourselves to the fight to preserve our neighborhoods. Doing so will allow us, during the next mayoral administration, to achieve more preservation progress and success. Not doing so will almost certainly mean more irreversible losses for our neighborhood that we would inevitably deeply regret.

Berman is executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation December 12, 2013

13

Photography, Village and music all keep on changing GRUEN, continued from p. 9

used to take a photo at a concert. It was published two weeks later in a magazine, and that was news. Now, before the band has finished their first song, you can send a photo. I can’t compete, and don’t want to compete, with that kind of speed.

“It used to be a lot harder work. You used to have to carry a lot of heavy equipment. When I started, I had to carry flashbulbs.”

He quipped, “Today, people use Instagram to mess up the picture. We just used alcohol and drugs. …

“But you can’t go back,” he said. “You don’t get milk delivered in a bottle by a guy in a wagon pulled by a horse. I’d rather be riding a horse, but… . I’m just happy to be here.”

“Here,” as in Westbeth, “used to be west of nowhere,” Gruen noted. The neighborhood has changed radically since 1970 when he moved in as one of the artists housing complex’s original tenants.

“Nobody knew where Washington St. was,” he recalled. “When you got past Eighth Ave., it was like no-man’s land — abandoned factories and piers. In the ’80s, AIDS killed off the kind of hedonistic sex with strangers. In the ’90s they cleaned up the whole neighborhood. They took down the highway, built the park,” he said, referring to the formerly elevated West Side Highway and the new Hudson River Park.

“I always wanted to live in a nice neighborhood,” he deadpanned. “Now we live in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in New York. But we’re surrounded by tourists, and the high rents have forced out the mom-and-pop shops.”

FLIPPING OUT AT SUPERIOR INK

14

December 12, 2013

Bob Gruen in his Westbeth studio in front of his photos of Deborah Harry of Blondie, left, during the shooting in Coney Island for the “Mutant Monster Beach Party” fumetti (a comic strip of artfully altered photos by Punk magazine), and The Clash playing in Boston, right.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE… Just as photography and the Village have changed, so, too, has the music scene. While Gruen said CBGB was a good venue for its time, he doesn’t put it above what’s happening today.

“Right now, there are dozens of clubs in Brooklyn where young people in their 20s are having a good time,” he said. “They’re doing it their own way. It’s spread out over the world now with the Internet.”

As for bands that he documented that never made it, Gruen mentioned the Steel Tips and the Miamis.

“Everybody loved the Miamis,” he said. “They wrote like 70 No. 1 hits that were never recorded.”

Nowadays, he likes the Sex Slaves and Barb Wire Dolls. He’s also a big fan of Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day. At Gruen’s recent 68th birthday party, Armstrong gave him a skateboard with a graffiti-style painting of Joey Ramone on it, which the photographer hung up prominently in his studio.

In his personal life, Gruen is married to Elizabeth Gregory, a fashion designer and artist, who is also currently helping him archive his work. Gruen has a son and a daughter and four granddaughters.

“They’re actually the biggest joy in my life, which was a surprise for an old punk rocker,” he said of his grandkids. “I enjoy visiting them.”

PHOTO BY BOB GRUEN

Gruen isn’t too happy about the new Superior Ink building, one of whose empty penthouses looms darkly directly across the street from his studio window, blocking his north view.

“You can see the pipes and wires hanging from the ceiling — no one’s ever lived there,” he said. “They paid $25 million for it, then resold it for $34 million.”

In fact, that’s exactly the idea, he said: No one will ever live there, and the place’s owners will keep flipping it as an investment.

“These people have other apartments,” he said. “They should have parked their money in the bank instead of that penthouse.” On the other hand, he added, “It’s better than the crack addicts” that used to hang around the area.

PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

CHANGES IN THE VILLAGE

Patti Smith, left, and the late Lou Reed in 1976. “He was a great artist and a difficult person,” Gruen said of Reed, whom he photographed on occasion.

TheVillager.com

Live auction not too lively, but, hey, there’s still online

BY BOB KRASNER

D

PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER

espite the help of mainstream press (Wall Street Journal), radio (“All Things Considered”) and local outlets (such as this paper), the live benefit auction held by St. Mark’s Bookshop last Thursday was not an auspicious start to its campaign to fund the shop’s upcoming move. Eleven signed, first-edition books were offered, but hands stayed down, with only one exception — Anne Waldman’s “First Baby Poems,” which sold for $100. Peter Straub, Sam Shepard and Richard Hell were a few of the authors whose works were returned to the shelf. These and many others, however, are still part of the online auction, which continues until Dec. 15.

Bob Contant, the bookshop’s co-owner, was not bemoaning the results.

“Expectations were not high to begin with” for the live portion of the ongoing auction, he noted. “We are happy that people showed up. At least the word is

out and attention is being paid.”

East Village resident Brittney Ingarra, an auctioneer from Swann Galleries who provided her services pro bono, gracefully sailed through the lack of action as one lot after another failed to generate any interest. Her participation was the result of a connection to Swann through former St. Mark’s Bookshop employee John Larson, who is now a book specialist at the auction house.

Many of the people involved in the project were not paid, having donated their services to the cause. Erica Hunt, a consultant who specializes in nonprofit organizations, is one one of them. Hunt actually came up with the idea for the auction and is seeing it through without compensation. She is optimistic about both the outcome of the project and the future of the store.

“We are fortunate that the auction will continue online,” she said, adding, “This is the right community to support the store — highly educated and cultured.”

Bidding continues online through Sun., Dec. 15, at 10 p.m. at http://benefitevents.com/auctions/stmarksbooks.

An unsold work — an autobiography by Richard Hell — being presented for inspection before the bookstore’s auction.

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TheVillager.com

December 12, 2013

15

Design proposal for Pier 42 features lawns, marshes,

BY SAM SPOKONY

T

he city’s Parks Department and its hired architect proposed their conceptual master plan for the redevelopment of Pier 42 on Dec. 5, offering a park design that focused heavily on wide open lawn space, waterfront marshes and near-complete removal of the large shed that currently stands on the Lower East Side pier.

Community Board 3’s Parks Committee approved the master plan — with an estimated cost of $94 million — and also approved the proposed Phase 1 plan for construction on the pier, which could begin as early as the start of 2016.

Phase 1 — which is already funded and will cost $9.8 million — includes demolishing the majority of the shed, planting lawns and trees along the 8-acre pier’s upland portion (which is currently a parking lot), creating walking paths, providing interim park lighting and adding a garden near the pier’s main entrance, at the intersection of Montgomery and South Sts. If the master plan and Phase 1 are approved at C.B. 3’s full board meeting on Dec. 17, both proposals will be sent to the city’s Public Design Commission for approval.

During the Dec. 5 presentation Signe Nielsen, of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, stressed similarities between flood-resistant, eco-friendly aspects of her firm’s design and Borough President Scott Stringer’s East River Blueway Plan, which was proposed earlier this year and would transform the waterfront between the Brooklyn Bridge and E. 38th St. “I feel that this park is doing exactly what the Blue-

A schematic overview of the proposed master plan for a new park at Pier 42.

way Plan is doing, and that it addresses what everyone is thinking about in terms of producing a resilient shoreline,” said Nielsen, alluding to widespread concerns of storm surge flooding after Hurricane Sandy. “I think this is the poster child for all these proposals that say what we

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should be doing along the East River.”

The ambitious Pier 42 master plan also includes removal of an interior portion of the pier’s deck, which sits directly over the river and needs to be overhauled anyway, since PIER 42, continued on p. 17

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playground, inlet and more

A rendering showing the planned inlet and bridges across the pier deck that would be built as part of the proposed master plan for Pier 42.

PIER 42, continued from p. 16

it is currently in a state of severe deterioration, according to the Parks Department.

That removal would leave a tiny inlet of water between the remaining deck — which would be covered by a lawn — and proposed waterfront marshes, creating a “soft edge” along that part of the river.

Green infrastructure advocates have long claimed that the inclusion of marshes and other soft edges will help protect the waterfront from adverse impacts of future storms like Sandy.

The planned inlet would also be bridged by two small pedestrian paths, which would connect the deck lawn and the park’s upland green spaces, according to the plan.

“It’ll almost feel like you’re walking on an island out in the river,” said Nielsen.

In addition to more lawns along the upland area, the master plan calls for a portion of raised land, just east of the waterfront’s existing bikeway, that Nielsen said would serve as a buffer to the noise and sight of cars on the busy F.D.R. Drive, in addition to helping prevent storm surges.

The master plan also includes a new playground near the Montgomery and South Sts. entrance, as well as a concession stand and restroom facilities in the same area of the park.

A more uncertain part of the plan relates to the portion of Pier 42, also near that entrance, that is currently used for operations by the city’s Department of Transportation.

“Our first job as part of this master plan is to find a new home for the D.O.T. site, although that may not be very easy,” said William Mauro, of the Parks Department, at the Dec. 5 presentation.

When — or if — the current D.O.T. space can be incorporated into the park, Nielsen’s design currently calls for both a seasonal fountain plaza and a small swath

TheVillager.com

of artificial turf to be placed on that site.

Nielsen later explained that, as an alternative option for the space currently occupied by D.O.T., her firm is considering placing a docking station for small boats and kayaks at that site.

But after the presentation, Rob Buchanan of the New York City Water Trail Association — which is representing various boating groups interested in Pier 42 — told the architect he believed that the pier’s planned inlet, rather than the current D.O.T. space, would be a much more accommodating location for boats or kayaks.

“We agree with you,” said Nielsen, though she added that her firm is now doing studies of the riverfront waters, and has found the currents around the proposed inlet to be higher and potentially unsafe. “So let’s wait and see what the rest of those studies show,” she said.

It’s still unclear how the remaining estimated total of around $85 million will be raised to fund all of these elements of the master plan, beyond the lawns and relatively simple aspects of Phase 1 of construction. After the presentation, Mauro admitted that the cost of the full plan is “a good amount more than we thought it would be,” mainly because so much money will have to be spent tearing down and replacing the structurally unsafe pier deck.

All of the funding for Pier 42 to date — which will pay for Phase 1, and has already paid for community outreach, site inspections and other elements — was secured in November 2011 by U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and state Senator Daniel Squadron.

After the Dec. 5 presentation, Mauro said that the Parks Department has continued to meet with Squadron to discuss the subject. Mauro further stated that, during those meetings, Squadron said he would continue to support the Pier 42 redevelopment, specifically, in terms of trying to secure additional funding.

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December 12, 2013

17

Please do talk in the library!

Project seeks Village stories

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December 12, 2013

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

Looking for

enizens of Greenwich Village, the Jefferson Market Library wants to talk to you.

Local residents, or anyone who has spent time in the area for work or fun, are welcome to share their stories from 20 years ago or more, to help document and preserve neighborhood lore. It’s all part of the “Your Village, Your Story: Greenwich Village Oral History Project.”

It was Frank Collerius, the library manager at the Jefferson Market Library, who came up with the idea for the undertaking.

After a lecture he gave to supporters of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation about the library’s history, including an introduction to its archive, Collerius was inspired to do an oral history project of the Village.

“I was talking to the group, and it was really a lot of fun,” Collerius said. “I brought out things from archives, and the G.V.S.H.P. members started telling stories from the photos they were seeing, and they were so truly interesting.”

To facilitate this ongoing project through the spring, more than 60 volunteers who enjoy the art of storytelling have been trained at the library in interview technique. They have learned basic interview tips, studied the background of oral histories and listened to examples.

Alexandra Kelly, outreach services assistant at the New York Public Library, has led the training sessions. Kelly noted the volunteers are diverse and that several are longtime Greenwich Village residents.

“I was amazed at the range of ages and professional backgrounds in the rooms at all of our trainings,” she said. “We have current and former teachers, photographers, historians and architects.”

Some local college students are also involved.

Kelly is experienced in conducting oral histories, and previously worked at StoryCorps for National Public Radio when she traveled the States to record conversations for the Library of Congress. She also developed two different oral history projects, one of which was in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. At N.Y.P.L., Kelly has contributed to the NYC Veterans Oral History Project.

“I’ve told all volunteers from the beginning that the training continues throughout the interviews,” she said. “Even after my several years recording stories, I’m still learning how to be a better listener. Listening is the key to a successful oral history interview.”

Rather than interrupt an interviewee to fill in a lull in conversation, Kelly advises volunteers to let the narrator set the pace and allow the story to naturally unfold.

Collerius noted that during training sessions, volunteers discussed how to make

The Jefferson Market Courthouse in 1938, in a photo by Berenice Abbott. Today it’s a library.

both the subject and the interviewer feel comfortable. They also reviewed good preliminary interview questions, how to maintain momentum and when to remain silent.

“Once the interviewer is assured there’s some method to it, the process is demystified a bit,” Collerius said. “They’re all passionate about interviewing these people, and there is no right or wrong. It’s asking someone to tell the story and go with their gut.”

The project’s goal is ultimately to collect 30 stories from the neighborhood for the library’s archives. Interviewees are encouraged to bring memorabilia or artifacts, which serve as memory triggers.

“It’s like ‘Antiques Roadshow.’ People would bring something, and then we can ask a person about the objects,” he explained.

The interviewers are ready to go for the project’s kickoff on Jan. 16, and a few stories have already been recorded. According to Kelly, one man interviewed is a cellist who used to live in Greenwich Village. He played his instrument during the interview between reminiscing about changes in the neighborhood.

Another interview includes dialogue between the storyteller and the interviewer as they reflect together on places they frequented that no longer exist. The interviewer also spoke about street games he played in the Village growing up, and his fondness for cars.

“The Village could be almost a state of mind as well as a geographical place,” Collerius said. “If anyone has a relationship to Greenwich Village, we want to hear it.”

Contact the library manager at FrankCollerius@nypl.or or 212-243-4334 if you have a story to tell.

TheVillager.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from p. 12

vancies and other public-private partnerships, such as business improvement districts, but we’ve had little success in achieving that. It seems that City Hall does not want to make it easy for the public to see those documents.

Also, when the Washington Square Park Conservancy group first appeared before C.B. 2 last spring, I specifically asked them during the public forum Q&A what their budget was.

The answer given was that they had no budget in place. It appears that their answer did not fit with the facts. Bill Castro, the Manhattan borough Parks Department commissioner, was at that meeting and let their claim of “no budget” remain in the public record.

Many more answers surrounding the creation of this conservancy are needed.

Thank you to Lincoln Anderson and Cathryn Swan for bringing this to light.

Pete Davies

Let ’em eat cake (not franks) To The Editor: Re “Blogger skewers conservancy over

let’s do something together at TRINITY WALL STREET

All Are Welcome All events are free, unless noted.

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hot dog purge in the park” (news article, Dec. 5): And will we need to wear tuxedos to visit the Washington Square Arch, and subscribe to “Burke’s Peerage” to use the park?

Secret agenda? Where have we heard that before and before and before...?

Unite brothers and sisters and dogs and squirrels. It is our park.

Judith Chazen Walsh

Parks on a slippery slope To The Editor: Re “Blogger skewers conservancy over hot dog purge in the park” (news article, Dec. 5): On Dec. 5, from earlier in the evening until after 6 p.m., there was filming in Washington Square Park. Production assistants and police prevented people from entering the park from multiple entrances. A private entertainment company had control of the park, and was enforcing its permit with much aggressive authority.

This is where the Hudson River Park is headed, because economic leverage was just completely turned over to real estate

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developers under the legislative amendment recently signed by Governor Cuomo. Note that film and TV shoots are now also allowed in Hudson River Park under this same legislation, meaning the shoots will soon be on a constant basis, with constant demand.

This community has made a grave error in allowing the Hudson River Park Act to be altered in this manner, and it will only get worse for Washington Square Park if the new conservancy is allowed to grow in power. Stop it in its tracks, people. No matter how well-intentioned, the park will end up answering to the whims of its “protectors,” not the community that surrounds it.

“Slippery slope” is no cliché when public lands are involved.

Patrick Shields

Share wealth for all parks To The Editor: At the Talking Transition tent, New Yorkers for Parks hosted a panel, “Four Immediate Ways to Equitably Improve NYC’s Parks.”

One panelist, state Senator Squadron, pro-

posed that “marquee parks,” like Central Park, share a percentage of their private funding with parks that lack private financial backers. He reminded us that all city parks exist within the same network — that any individual park’s situation affects all parks. His plea was impassioned, intelligent.

But his proposal was hammered. The audience was warned of the chilling effect on marquee park supporters, of government interfering with the “democratic tradition” of philanthropy, that city parks were not in such bad shape anyway. It was disheartening.

We were sitting in an enormous “tent,” constructed by the wealth of billionaires, hoping to influence the next mayor. We were in Manhattan, home of the nation’s largest income inequality gap.

Community gardeners share. All volunteers, we freely give plants, labor, resources and expertise. Our budgets are usually under $3,000. We do a lot with a little.

But neighborhood parks need large amounts of funding to fix broken equipment and to retool park buildings to serve as sites for resiliency centers, youth spaces, meeting and information hubs. Every neighborhood Continued on p. 28

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TheVillager.com

December 12, 2013

19

Jim Hall, 83, top jazz guitarist, longtime Villager OBITUARY

BY SAM SPOKONY

L

egendary jazz guitarist and longtime Greenwich Village resident Jim Hall died on Dec. 10, at age 83.

Hall was widely regarded by both players and critics as a true master of the instrument, and his influence as a keenly melodic and modern guitarist continues to be felt throughout the jazz world. Along with leading his own bands, some of his most famous recorded collaborations include those with the saxophonist Sonny Rollins and the pianist Bill Evans in the 1950s and ’60s.

In his later years, Hall taught for some time at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and he continued to perform up until his death. His final gig took place less than a month ago, on Nov. 23 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room.

Hall died in his sleep at his W. 12th St. home — where he lived for four decades

— after a short illness, according to his wife, Jane, to whom he was married for 48 years.

“He was such a sweet, wonderful man,” she said, “and he had a million friends.”

Elizabeth Butson, a former publisher of The Villager and a resident of the same W. 12th St. building, echoed that sentiment, explaining that Hall was revered within the community.

“He was beloved everywhere he went, whether it was as a musician, a teacher or a neighbor,” said Butson.

Among Hall’s friends toward the end of his life were a group of fellow New York City-based guitarists — many of them younger musicians who had grow up listening to him — whom he sometimes met for lunch at French Roast, at the corner of W. 11th St. and Sixth Ave. The group always sat either in the restaurant’s back room or at a large table near the back. They talked shop and shared stories, but most of all, they laughed, according to one of those guitarists, Julian Lage, who added that the meetings were each jokingly referred to as “The Jim Hall Invitational Luncheon.”

Jim Hall.

“Nothing made Jim happier than hearing a funny story, and we spent the whole time laughing our heads off,” said Lage,

25, who performed alongside Hall numerous times, most recently at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival.

The last of the lunch meetings took place less than a week before Hall’s death, but it was particularly special because it was a celebration of his 83rd birthday.

“No one’s had a greater influence on my musical trajectory. And at every stage of my development, I’ve thought, ‘Thank God for Jim Hall,’ ” said Lage. “But it was those lunches that’ll remain some of the most enjoyable moments of my life.”

James Stanley Hall was born Dec. 4, 1930, in Buffalo, N.Y. Coming from a musical family, he first picked up the guitar at age 10, and was playing professionally by the time he was a teenager. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and then lived in Los Angeles before moving to New York in the early 1960s.

Hall’s vast musical contributions earned him America’s highest jazz honor in 2004, when he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.

In addition to his wife, Hall is survived by a daughter, Devra Hall Levy, who also served as his manager.

Cooper, community team up to create emergency system LUMEN, continued from p. 1

public wireless Internet, emergency lighting and a charging station for computers or cell phones.

Community leaders supporting the project hope to install the innovative, three-in-one power stations around public spaces — starting near the East River waterfront, where so

many people suffered after losing power when Sandy struck.

“It’s really a fantastic opportunity for the students,” said Dr. Toby Cumberbatch, who teaches the interdisciplinary class, titled “Sustainable Engineering and Development,” that will host the project once the next semester begins in mid-January.

“It presents a lot of stimulating challenges,” Cumberbatch added. “But the big thing is that this involves real people and a real need on the Lower East Side, and it’ll push students to provide a great benefit to the neighborhood.”

The project — which has been named the Cooper Lumen Design Challenge — was conceived by Paul Garrin, an East Village resident and Cooper alumnus who in 2003 created WiFi-NY, a member-supported, noncommercial Internet provider that has grown to serve the East Village, Lower East Side and western Brooklyn.

Back in 2010, Garrin reached out to the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council in order to bring his wireless Internet service to their community. After Sandy struck last year and left many

Two Bridges residents stranded, without power or access to vital online information, he also began working with them to develop the WiFi-NY People’s Emergency Network, which aims to connect people in case of a devastating storm that knocks out service from major corporate Internet providers.

Garrin explained that when he recently began thinking of the possibilities for a new three-in-one product that could provide lighting and a charging station, as well as Internet access, he decided to bridge a gap, and brought Cooper and T.B.N.C. together.

“I feel it’s important for me, as an alum, to offer the students the chance to do something unique, while also allowing Cooper to engage the local community more than they have in the past,” Garrin said.

Now, he’s serving as a mentor and community liaison for the Cooper Lumen Design Challenge, while T.B.N.C. acts as LUMEN, continued on p. 31

325 W. 14th Street New York, NY 10014 (between 8th & 9th Avenues)

(212) 242-1456 www.reddenfuneralhome.net NY State law mandates that funeral trust funds for Medicaid recipients pay for funeral & burial only. These contracts are irrevocable.

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December 12, 2013

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Have yourself a darkly odd Christmas Essential viewings balance the treacly and the treacherous

BY TRAV S.D. (travsd.wordpress.com)

C

I’d never heard of this movie until they began to show it on cable television in the 1980s. It rapidly became my favorite holiday film, for it is every bit as bizarre and dark as it is charming and festive.

For some reason, Hal Roach liked to

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CINEMATOGRÁFICA CALDERÓN

“BABES IN TOYLAND” a.k.a. “MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS” (1934)

HAL ROACH STUDIOS

hristmas is usually associated with brightness: the North Star over Bethlehem, the lights on a Christmas tree, the whiteness of snow, the silver of tinsel. Fairy tales, on the other hand, are notoriously dark, with their stories about lost children and the wolves, witches, ogres, giants and trolls out to get them — unconscious maps of the anxieties that lie just underneath every human psyche. In any good yarn, the characters need to get into trouble. For the most part, the best Christmas stories walk a fine balance between the treacly and the treacherous: the Abominable Snowman, the Winter Warlock, the Mayor of Sombertown, the Grinch and that evil magician who harasses Frosty for his top hat are all fine villains. Yet all are redeemed and transformed by the Christmas spirit.

The psychologies of some people who make Christmas movies and television specials, however, are apparently so badly wired or damaged that they unconsciously produce nightmarish effects far beyond the normally accepted bounds of the genre.

Those are the shows I like to watch again and again and again and again and again.

Laurel and Hardy, in the sweet but unsettling “Babes in Toyland.”

Bizarre: Santa battles a devil.

experiment with starring Laurel and Hardy in operas and operettas (he’d done the same with “The Bohemian Girl” and “Fra Diavolo”). Here of course, the team adapted the popular 1903 Broadway show by Victor Herbert. Much is changed from the stage version, however. The film is set in a land populated by all the characters from nursery rhymes and other children’s literature (Stan and Ollie are versions of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, two toymakers who live in the Old Woman’s Shoe).

Much more enjoyable than the conventional plot about young lovers and a rapacious landlord/suitor are the film’s memorable details: a guy in a cat costume and a live monkey inexplicably dressed as Mickey Mouse; little people (or children?) costumed as the Three Little Pigs; the army of

USA make a pretty poor showing indeed.

Don’t forget to keep an eye peeled for the “Dance of the Giant Dolls” nightmare. At any rate, this is the NEW classic around my house. I’ll need to watch it many more dozens of times until I get it out of my system.

hairy little bogeymen — and then there’s the scene where Oliver Hardy, nabbed for burglary, is made to receive a medieval dunking punishment while Old King Cole laughs merrily at the spectacle. My favorite line is “Oh, help! I’m smothering!” The whole thing is both sweet and unsettling and I can never get enough of it.

“SANTA CLAUS” (1959)

This is a bizarre film, no two ways about it. In this Mexican-made Christmas story, Santa and one “Pitch,” a devil, battle for the souls of several children on Christmas Eve. On Santa’s side are Merlin the Magician and contingents of child labor from all over the world. The first 20 minutes of the film are eaten up by a concert featuring songs from each nation. It gets quite preposterous after a while, and I must say the delegates from the

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964)

Back in the day, people used to laugh at the kind of “cheap production values” evinced by movies like this. On the contrary. From where I sit, it’s more like an example of the kind of magic you can make on a shoestring. Everything you need to know is in the title. The leaders of Mars are concerned about the growing apathy and depression of their children (one of whom CHRISTMAS ESSENTIALS, continued on p.22

December 12, 2013

21

Bizarre but festive seasonal must-sees CHRISTMAS ESSENTIALS, continued from p. 21

is a very young Pia Zadora). To bring them joy, they kidnap Santa Claus, and (by accident) two stowaway earth children. Some of the Martians are good, some are evil. The evil ones are dispatched by an army of Santa’s wind-up toys, in a scene that is truly a triumph of early psychedelia. I find the colors in this movie beautiful to look at. There is no more perfect film to watch on a double bill with “Santa Claus.”

THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS (1974)

EstablishEd sincE 1880

Famous Dylan Thomas Watering Hole

567 Hudson St. NYC * 243-9260

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December 12, 2013

This 1964 cheapo has shoestring magic — and Pia Zadora!

Trav S.D. has been producing the American Vaudeville Theatre since 1995, and periodically trots it out in new incarnations. Stay in the loop at travsd.wordpress.com, and also catch up with him at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, et al. His books include “No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous” and “Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and its Legacies from Nickelodeons to YouTube.”

May your Christmas be as White as our Horse!

RANKIN/BASS

White horse Tavern

I lied when I said I watched all of these shows over and over. I’ve only watched this one two or three times, and it was at least three times too much. My substitute name for this made-for-TV holiday movie is “The Worst Christmas Special Ever.”

Some may take umbrage (given entries number two and three), but I stand by it.

Those movies at least have entertainment value. They provide a spectacle and entertainment, however bizarre. That sort of thing is never “bad” in my eyes, although that’s the word people often resort to.

Much worse than that in my eyes is bland mediocrity. The only true sin in cinema is to be boring.

This one has almost the identical plot to “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” Charles Durning’s Santa is so depressed he does everything but drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes. “I don’t know why I’m knockin’ myself out,” he sighs, as though Santa were some under-paid, under-appreciated civil servant. Fortunately (or unfortunately), he is accosted by a very disturbing, oversized elf creature who tries to stir him back into action. The day will be saved by none other than Wayne Osmond (not even Donny or Jimmy), who plays piano at the mall, and his wide-eyed little daughter. Wayne Osmond, as you have already surmised, is not a towering paragon of thespianism.

One only hopes that Santa will leave a coupon for acting lessons in his stocking!

EMBASSY PICTURES CORPORATION

This popular Rankin/Bass show premiered when I was nine years old, and I can’t tell you the unspeakable excitement with which we fourth graders greeted the event. All the previous Rankin/Bass specials had premiered before our time (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed” in 1964, “The Little Drummer Boy” in 1968, “Frosty the Snow Man” in 1969, and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” in 1970). And while we gave this new one high marks (especially the Heat and Snow Miser songs), something was different. In modern parlance, it seems to me that with this special, the series jumped the shark.

How many holiday angles can you hit?

Eventually you have to go downbeat.

“What if, one year, there was no Christmas?” Though this show was based on a book written in 1956, it certainly feels very much in tune with the spirit of 1974, with its soaring divorce rates and cynicism. It was perhaps inevitable that given the tenor of the times, we would be given a Santa who is clinically depressed, who is having some kind of nervous breakdown or identity crisis. “I don’t know, maw,” he mutters, “There just doesn’t seem to be any reason to bother any more.”

My favorite part is during the show’s closing number, when Santa shouts to the heavens: “I dreamed unpleasant things!”

IT NEARLY WASN’T CHRISTMAS (1989)

Celebrate and have a drink with us!

All Grandmas allowed No Reindeers!

Giddy-up & Have a Merry Christmas!

Snow Miser’s the real star of 1974’s “The Year Without a Santa Claus.”

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Just Do Yule

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

GREENWICH VILLAGE CAROLING WALK

Have songbook, will travel: Carolers make a stop at Washington Mews, during 2012’s Greenwich Village Caroling Walk.

LESS THAN RENT’S “HOW LTR STOLE CHRISTMAS”

PHOTO BY WAYNE VALZANIA

Considering the source, the tagline “LTR’s First Annual Holiday Variety Show” sounds like a threat wrapped in a promise — but it may be the perfect gift, for those prefer to fill their seasonal plate with dark meat, dark matter and edges that cut. “We aim to navigate the complexities of our generation and the modern world by exploring the vast canons of the past in new and imaginative ways,” says the Less Than Rent collective — who are currently bringing that mission statement to the stage in the form of three wild, profane, chaotic and “highly unwholesome” Christmas-themed variety shows. Elf choirs, holiday sweater

One in six (at the least) will stop by Stonewall, when groups of singers fan out across the area, for Dec. 21’s Greenwich Village Caroling Walk.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LESS THAN RENT

PHOTO BY DAVIS FOULGER

There’s no need to hop across the pond to have yourself a merry little “Christmas Carol”-type experience. The Village has an ample amount of cobblestone charm and picturesque Dickensian pathways to navigate — without the hassle of 19th century London’s flower women, fishmongers and roving gangs of pickpocketing urchins. Soak up the atmosphere, and create some of your own — by taking part in the West Village Chorale’s 39th Annual Greenwich Village Caroling Walk. Songbooks will be provided, upon arrival at the Meeting Room of Judson Memorial Church. From there, groups of singers will head out on six routes, as the solstice sun dips toward the horizon. Refreshments await you at Judson, when the event comes full circle (at which point there will be a bit more singing, and much conviviality).

Free. Sat., Dec. 21, at 3pm. Meet at Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Square South, at Thompson St.). For info, call 212-5171776 or visit westvillagechorale.org.

Why so glum? Mike Schwitter is among the Less Than Rent members plumbing the depths of holiday depression, in Dec. 17’s “A Blue Christmas Without Jew.”

stripteases, a reenactment of the Hanukah story and staged readings of the worst-ever TV holiday specials figure into the mix on any given night.

Now for some bad news: You’ve missed the first two installments (Dec. 3’s “A Miracle on East 4 Street” and Dec. 10’s “America’s Next Top Virgin Mary Christmas Beauty Pageant”). The good news? Dec. 17’s “A Blue Christmas Without Jew” gives you one last chance to catch the troupe’s profane proceedings. It’s hosted by Brandon Zelman, directed by Nicole Ventura and will feature various seasonal atrocities by guest playwrights, as performed by LTR members including Cory Asinofsky, Ben Diserens, Mark Levy, Olivia Macklin, Tom Sanchez and Catherine Weingarten. Certain unpleasant truths will be told — and latkes will be served!

Tues., Dec. 17, at 9pm. At The Kraine Theater (85 E. Fourth St., btw. Second Ave. & Bowery).

For tickets ($10), call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.org. Also visit lessthanrent.org.

Theater for the New City • 155 1st Avenue at E. 10th St. Reservations & Info (212) 254-1109 For more info, please visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net

SHAKESPEARE AND ELIZABETH I: THE REALITY SHOW Written by PHOEBE LEGERE Directed by MARK MARCANTE & DAVID “ZEN” MANSLEY

Thursday - Sunday December 12 - 15 Thu-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 3pm All Seats $15/tdf@$9

WELCOME HOME SONNY T Written & Directed by WILLIAM ELECTRIC BLACK

Thursday - Sunday, December 12 - 22

Thu-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 3pm All Seats $15/Studt’s & Srs $12/tdf@$9

TWO ALONE, TOO TOGETHER Written by PETER WELCH Directed by JONATHAN WEBER With DAN KELLEY & PETER WELCH

Thursday - Sunday, December 12 - 22 Thu-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 3pm All Seats $15/Studt’s & Srs $10/tdf@$9

NEW CITY, NEW BLOOD

TNC’s New Play Reading Series!

“FOR CHANCE” Written by CHIMA CHIKAZUNGA Monday, December 16th 7:00pm Sugg. Donation $5

TNC’s Programs are funded in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts

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December 12, 2013

23

Just Do Art

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY PRESENTS: “WELCOME HOME SONNY T”

December 12, 2013

PHOTO BY MICHAEL DE ANGELIS

24

Cut from the same cloth, but wearing different colors: Eliza Bent and Dave Malloy are the titular mojo workers, in “Blue Wizard/Black Wizard.”

BLUE WIZARD / BLACK WIZARD

PHOTO BY JONATHAN SLAFF

Written in the tradition of Steven Carter, Lorraine Hansberry, Charles Fuller and James Baldwin — who confronted black family and community issues with gripping realism — “Welcome Home Sonny T” is the first in playwright/director William Electric Black’s five-part “Gunplays” series, which addresses inner city violence and guns.

“Activist” theater is nothing new for Black (a.k.a. Ian Ellis James, who serves as Artistic Director of La MaMa’s Poetry Electric series and is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning writer for his work on “Sesame Street”). In 2009, he directed Theater for the New City’s “Lonely Soldier Monologues: Women at War in Iraq” — a series of solo performances based on a book by Helen Benedict.

With this debut installment in the “Gunplay” series, Black spotlights the social impact of alienation and unemployment on young black males, as well as the declining influence of the church. Part of a seven-member cast, Richard Pryor Jr. (son of the comedian) plays a prominent black minister (and former 60’s radical) grappling with his own inability to restore order in a neighborhood scarred by gun violence.

Through Dec. 22, Thurs. through Sat. at 8pm and Sun. at 3pm. At Theater for the New City (155 First Ave., at E. 10th St.). For tickets ($15, $12 for students/seniors), call 212254-1109 or visit smarttix.com. Also visit welcomehomesonnyt.com and theaterforthenewcity.net.

A mother (Verna Hampton) confronts her son (Kadeem Harris) in the presence of a lost brigand (Brandon Melette, center) who would lure him into hate crimes — in “Welcome Home Sonny T.”

Like a two-person Barry Manilow, Eliza Bent and Dave Malloy write the songs — and they also write the script.

Busy enough behind the scenes, the duo also stars in “Blue Wizard/Black Wizard.” Mikeah Earnest Jennings and Nikki Calongev play referees, charged with judging a series of battles and contests meant to save onlookers from the “Great Mediocrity.” As the Incubator Arts Project production plays itself out, mounting evidence suggests that the two opposing mojo workers might not actually be wizards — just regular people trying to inject some meta-theatrical excitement into their mundane lives. A score written in the style of “Prince-inspired medieval techno” seeks to “warp the conventions of musical theater and classical art song to intersect with the sensibilities of electronic music.”

That, along with the presence of a 12-person chorus, ought to ensure that spectators won’t suffer from the on-stage display of wizardly ennui.

Through Dec. 22, Tues., and Thurs. through Sun., at 8pm. At Incubator Arts Project — located inside St. Mark’s Church (at 131 E. 10th St., at Second Ave.). For tickets ($18), call 866-811-4111 or visit incubatorarts.org.

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Flea Theater breaks ground on bigger digs Bats will soon have a better place to hang

BY SAM SPOKONY

Good art works on many levels: A rendering of the new Flea Theater depicts its three performance spaces.

residential neighborhood in New York.”

Funding for the purchase and renovation of 20 Thomas St. came nearly equally from public and private sources — $5 million from the city and $3.75 million from the state, with $8.15 million coming from private donors, according to Ron Lasko, the theater’s spokesperson.

He added that the Flea is still hoping to raise an additional $2 million in private

PHOTO BY SAM SPOKONY

Actress Sigourney Weaver, a founding partner of Flea Theater, left, with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Dept. of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin, helped bust down a ceremonial wall at the Dec. 5 groundbreaking event for the Flea Theater’s new home at 20 Thomas St.

money to finish renovating the building, and to fund an endowment to cover future operating expenses.

Film star Sigourney Weaver, who is married to Simpson and was a partner in founding the Flea 17 years ago, also spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony. In addition to co-starring in two productions at the Flea, she had played a vital role in lobbying for the theater’s public funding

in recent years.

“The Flea has renewed and energized established artists like myself, sustained emerging artists in theater and dance and showcased the next very talented generations,” said Weaver. “We couldn’t be more proud, or more grateful to the city, the state and the countless individuals who have made this dream come true for all of us.”

What’s new, at the Flea’s old digs

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

F

amily Furniture” is playwright A.R. Gurney’s eighth world premiere at The Flea. Thomas Kail, a 2008 Tony nominee for “In The Heights,” directs a cast whose familiar ranks include Peter Scolari (“Girls” and “Newhart” on TV, and recently seen on Broadway in “Lucky Guy”). The play is described by the Flea as a return to “home territory” for Gurney — whose coming of age tale, set in Buffalo, happens over the course of a decisive summer during which an upper class WASP tribe girds themselves with gin and tonic, to navigate “tennis doubles with the Baldwins, vichyssoise and so much more, in this heartfelt tale about parents and children.”

In 2014, the Bats will be busy bees while their new three-theater hive is under construction. Back at the Flea’s “classic” White St. location, its resident acting company (named for those sleek, nocturnal, winged cave-dwellers) is prepping for a January world premiere from Brooklyn’s Brian Watkins. Helmed by resident director Danya Taymor and featuring members of the Bats, “My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer” finds Sarah, Hannah and their needy mother stuck in a forgotten prairie town with Vicky — lone survivor of the family’s formerly robust flock of sheep. Tasked with housebreaking the woolly beast, the sisters face a similar challenge: learn to behave civilly, or sacrifice their future. “We haven’t heard the howls of the prairie — that vast expanse of America — since the early days of Sam Shepard,” says Producing Director Carol Ostrow of the playwright.

“Watkins,” she asserts, “is an original, and he is a real find.”

PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

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IMAGE COURTESY OF FLEA THEATER

O

ne of Downtown’s leading OffOff Broadway theaters is moving to a space that’s nearly double the size of its old one.

Directors and supporters of Tribeca’s Flea Theater celebrated the groundbreaking of their new 20 Thomas St. home on Dec. 5, and jubilantly announced that — thanks to city, state and private funding — they now own the building.

“This is truly a most thrilling step in our story,” artistic director Jim Simpson said at the Dec. 5 ceremony, “and I could not be happier to be at the helm of the Flea right now.”

Since it was founded in 1996, the Flea has rented its 7,400-square-foot space at 41 White St., which has two theaters. Once the company moves a few blocks to 20 Thomas St. — construction is expected to be completed by fall of 2014 — the Flea will enjoy an 11,500-square-foot space that will include three theaters, as well as a rehearsal room.

The Flea was certainly able to thrive in the smaller facility — presenting more than 100 plays, as well as dance and music performances, and winning numerous Obies and other awards — but those who backed the move financially believe it will give a new and valuable boost to the Downtown arts scene.

“This little Flea is going to help make big dreams come true for a lot of young artists,” said Scott Stringer, Manhattan’s borough president. “The cultural life of the city will really be defined by how many young people get an opportunity to come here from all over the world, just because they want to sing and dance and express themselves.”

Stringer, who will take office as the city’s next comptroller in January, said he had hoped to find a new home for the Flea ever since he became borough president eight years ago.

“So I’m glad that, with 27 days left as borough president, we finally got this thing done,” he quipped.

Keeping with the lightheartedness of the ceremony, Kate Levin, commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, proclaimed the Flea’s new space to be “groovy doovy” — a phrase she said Simpson had taught her years ago.

“The Flea really has been a key part of transforming Lower Manhattan,” said Levin, “and in making sure that it is a cultural hub as well as a vibrant business destination, not to mention the fastest-growing

A tried and true WASP, in a ‘Bats’ cave: A.R. Gurney’s “Family Furniture” is the playwright’s eight world premiere, at the Flea.

“Family Furniture” plays through Dec. 22. Tues.-Sat. at 7pm, Sun. at 3pm. Tickets are $15-$70 (Pay-What-You-Can Tuesdays, at the door).

Previews for “My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer” begin Jan. 15, with the run from Jan. 25-Feb. 15, Wed.-Sun., at 7pm. Tickets are $15-$35. Both plays take place at The Flea, 41 White St. (btw. Broadway & Church). For reservations, call 212-352-3101 or visit theflea.org.

December 12, 2013

25

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Vil: 12/05 - 01/09/2014

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF CINEREACH FELLOWSHIPS PSC, LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/23/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 10/23/13.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to the principal business addr.: c/o The Manhattan Family Office, 405 Lexington Ave., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10174.

DEaddr. of LLC: c/o National Corporate Research, Ltd. 615 S. Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF BGCH APARTMENTS MM LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/21/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Alembic Community Development, 11 Hanover Square, #701, New York, NY 10005. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 12/05 - 01/09/2014 PAULSON RECOVERY FUND II LP Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/23/13. Office location: NY Co. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 9/25/13. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to The LP 1251 Ave of the Americas New York, NY 10020. DE address of LP: 1209 Orange ST Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts. Of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, PO Box 898 Dover, DE 19903.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CO3 FINE ARTS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/23/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Cahill Partners LLP, 70 W. 40th St., New York, NY 10018. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF NEPU LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/24/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 8/22/13.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF TECH OPPORTUNITIES LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 11/8/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 11/4/13.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 777 Third Ave., 30th Fl., NY, NY 10017, principal business address. DE address of LLC: 615 S. DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF WATERMAN 400 PARK JV LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/21/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 10/18/13.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC:The Corporation Trust Co., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF DOORBROOK LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/22/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 410 E. 57th St., 10th Fl., New York, NY 10022. Purpose: investments.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CAHOKIA LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/14/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Wolf Family Management Company, LLC, 700 Louisiana, Ste. 1100, Houston, TX 77002. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF GGR MADISON LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/20/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o BCRA CO., Attn: Shelley Clifford, 161 N. Clark St., Ste. 4300, Chicago, IL 60603. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF WORLD FOODS AND FLAVORS USA LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/22/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Gleason & Koatz, LLP, 122 E. 42nd St., Ste. 518, New York, NY 10168. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/28 - 01/02/2014 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF ARC FDCCSNY001, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/12/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/23/13. Princ. office of LLC: 106 York Rd., Jenkintown, PA 19046. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o CSC, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.

DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF ARC DBPORBR001, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/13/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/12/13. Princ. office of LLC: 106 York Rd., Jenkintown, PA 19046. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o CSC, 80 State St., 6th Fl., Albany, NY 12207. DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF BOP ONE NORTH END LANDLORD LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 11/19/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 250 Vesey St., 15th Fl., New York, NY 10281. LLC formed in DE on 11/05/2013.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Corporation Service Company, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE: The name of the foreign Limited Liability Company is AHR ENTERPRISES LLC. Applic. for Auth. filed with NYS Dept of State on 9/30/13.

Jurisdiction: Delaware & date of organization is 8/15/13.

Office location in NY State: NY County; street address - 255 Hudson Street, Apt. PHB, New York, NY 10013.

NY Sec. of State (SOS) is designated as agent of the LLC for service of process.

SOS to mail a copy of any process against LLC to c/o Anthony Heifara Rutgers, 255 Hudson Street, Apt. PHB, NewYork, NY 10013 within or without NY State. Address maintained in its jurisdiction is: Secretary of State, John G. Townsend Bldg, 401 Federal St. – Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act or activity which limited liability companies may be organized.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE: The name of the foreign Limited Liability Company is AZTECH MOUNTAIN LLC. Applic. for Auth. filed with NYS Dept of State on 10/1/13.

Jurisdiction: Delaware & date of organization is 8/15/13.

Office location in NY State: NY County; street address - 255 Hudson Street, Apt. PHB, New York, NY 10013.

NY Sec. of State (SOS) is designated as agent of the LLC for service of process.

SOS to mail a copy of any process against LLC to c/o Anthony Heifara Rutgers, 255 Hudson Street, Apt. PHB, NewYork, NY 10013 within or without NY State. Address maintained in its jurisdiction is: Secretary of State, John G. Townsend Bldg, 401 Federal St. – Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act or activity which limited liability companies may be organized.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF 136 GREENE LLC App. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 11/1/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/27/12. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Thor Equities, LLC, 25 W. 39th St., NY, NY 10018. DE address of LLC: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Drive, Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904. Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF BOURNE & ZAKHEIM, LLP Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 08/06/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLP may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLP is to: Bourne & Zakheim LLP, 733 THIRD AVENUE, New York, NY 10017. Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUAL. OF TWO SIGMA LUNA, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/6/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/3/13.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: Matthew Siano, Esq., 100 Ave of the Americas, NY, NY 10013.

DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

TheVillager.com

NOTICE OF QUAL. OF TWO SIGMA HOLDINGS VC ACQUISITION FUND, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/6/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/3/13.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: Matthew Siano, Esq., 100 Ave of the Americas, NY, NY 10013.

DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUAL. OF VALINOR CAPITAL PARTNERS SPV XIII, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/17/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/16/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: David Angstreich, 510 Madison Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUAL. OF VALINOR CAPITAL PARTNERS SPV XIV, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/17/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/16/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: David Angstreich, 510 Madison Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF QUAL. OF VALINOR CAPITAL PARTNERS SPV XV, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/17/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/16/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: David Angstreich, 510 Madison Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

TheVillager.com

NOTICE OF QUAL. OF VALINOR CAPITAL PARTNERS SPV XVI, LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 5/17/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 5/16/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: David Angstreich, 510 Madison Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF PILLAR CAPITAL FINANCE LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/4/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 330 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10017. LLC formed in DE on 4/1/13. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF FARMMAVEN LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/7/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: National Corporate Research, Ltd., 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016, the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE OF CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORITY OF FOREXLIVE MEDIA LLC Certificate of Authority filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 11/8/2013. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to: c/o Delaware Intercorp Inc., 113 Barksdale Professional Ctr., Newark, DE, 19113. Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013

NOTICE OF REGISTRATION OF BUTLER SNOW LLP Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/4/13. Office location: NY County. LLP registered in Delaware on 10/10/13. SSNY designated as agent of LLP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Thomas E. Williams, 1020 Highland Colony Parkway, Ste. 1400, Ridgeland, MS 39157. Principal office of LLP: 1700 Broadway, 41st Fl., New York, NY 10019. Purpose: practice the profession of law.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF SDF64 MERMAID AVENUE LLC Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 11/4/13.

Office location: NY County.

Princ. bus. addr.: 825 3rd Ave., Fl 37, NY, NY 10022. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/21 - 12/26/2013

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MANDER JEWELRY, LLC Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 07/15/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to: Mander Jewelry LLC, 400 Convent Avenue #52, New York, NY 10031. Purpose:To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF 200 CAPTAINS NECK LANE LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/05/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/23/13. Princ. office of LLC: 681 5th Ave., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Apex Bulk Carriers LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 613 WEST 46, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/02/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Sanders Ortoli VaughnFlam Rosenstadt LLP, 501 Madison Ave., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Sanders Ortoli Vaugh-Flam Rosenstadt LLP, 501 Madison Ave., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10022. As amended

by Cert. of Correction filed with SSNY on 10/16/13, the process addr. is: c/o Sanders Ortoli Vaughn-Flam Rosenstadt LLP. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF HUDSON TECH RESIDENTIAL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/01/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 826 Broadway, 11th Fl., NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Hudson Companies at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 175 W 137 ST LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/31/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Gerald Migdol, Esq., 223 W. 138th St., Ground Fl., NY, NY 10030. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF KAPLAN INTERNATIONAL NORTH AMERICA, LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 4/5/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in CA on 12/31/12. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. Principal office address: 1015 Windward Ridge Pkwy., Alpharetta, GA 30005. Cert. of Org. filed with CA Sec. of State, 1500 11th St., Sacramento, CA 95814. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF KLEOS MANAGED SERVICES, L.P. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 9/12/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: One Liberty Plaza, 49th Fl., NY, NY 10006. LP formed in DE on 3/31/04.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE addr. of LP: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Name/ addr. of genl. ptr. available from NY Sec. of State. Cert. of LP filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/14 - 12/19/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MIV BLUE LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/22/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 333 E 91st St APT 14C NY, NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful act. 2174399 w.o Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013 SCEC MANAGEMENT LLC Art. of org. filed with SSNY on 10/03/2013. office location: New York county. SSNY is designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail the process to: The LLC, � Edmond Cho CALAMO SILK INC 55 West 39th Street New York NY 10018.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

NOTICE OF QUAL. OF

NOTICE OF QUALIFICA-

VALINOR CAPITAL PART-

TION OF VIRGO PENN

NERS SPV XI, LLC

BUSINESS CENTERS LLC

Auth. filed Sec’y of State

Authority filed with Secy.

(SSNY) 3/4/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 2/28/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be

10/16/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/27/12. Princ. office of LLC: 225 W. 34th St., 9th Fl., NY, NY 10122.

served. SSNY shall mail copy

SSNY designated as agent

of proc. to Att: David Angst-

of LLC upon whom process

reich, 510 Madison Ave., 25th

against it may be served.

Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE off.

SSNY shall mail process to

addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville

the LLC, 575 Lexington Ave.,

Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

4th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State, State of DE, Dept. of State, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. As

NOTICE OF CERTIFICATE

amended by Cert. of Cor-

OF AUTHORITY OF FXDD

rection filed with SSNY on

BULLION LLC

10/22/13, name changed to

Certificate of Authority filed

VIRGO PENN BUSINESS

with Secretary of State of

CENTERS, LLC.

NewYork (SSNY) on 10/28/13.

Any lawful activity.

SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which

Purpose:

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

Office location: NY County.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CPVT GROUP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on

SSNY shall mail a copy of

10/7/13. Office location: NY

any process against the LLC

County. SSNY designated as

is to: Delaware Intercorp Inc.,

agent of LLC upon whom

113 Barksdale Professional

process against it may be

Ctr., Newark, DE, 19113. Pur-

served. SSNY shall mail pro-

pose:To engage in any lawful

cess to: The LLC, 381 Lenox

act or activity.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013 LEVER AND BEAM MUSIC, LLC

Avenue, 1st Fl., NY, NY 10027.

Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF DENT LLC

Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State

Arts. of Org. filed with NY

of NY 08/22/2013. Off. Loc.:

Dept. of State on 10/18/13.

New York Co. SSNY desig-

Office location: NY County.

nated as agent upon whom

Sec. of State designated

process against it may be

agent of LLC upon whom

served. SSNY to mail copy

process against it may be

of process to The LLC, C/O Alexander Kadvan, 325 West

NOTICE OF QUAL. OF TOMS RE MANAGEMENT LLC Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 9/11/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE 9/6/13. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to c/o TOMS Capital, 450 W. 14th St., 13th Fl., NY, NY 10014. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

of State of NY (SSNY) on

38Th St., Ste 1101, New York, NY 10018. Purpose: Any law-

served and shall mail process to: 184 Thompson St., 5A, NY, NY 10012. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

ful act or activity.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF QUEENS BOULEVARD APARTMENTS, LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 9/19/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: c/o A&E Real Estate Holdings, LLC, 1065 Ave. of the Americas, 31st Fl., NY, NY 10018. LLC formed in DE on 9/3/13. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: CT Corporation, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011. DE addr. of LLC: c/o The Corporation Trust Co., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: organized for any lawful act or activity permitted by limited liability companies organized under the laws of the State of Delaware that are related or incidental to and necessary, convenient or advisable to owning real property.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

NAME OF LP: BLACK BEAN CAPITAL L.P.

THE VAGABOND TAPAS

Cert. filed with NY Dept. of

CAFE LLC

State: 8/28/2013. Office loc.:

Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State

NY Co. Sec. of State des-

of NY 07/29/2013. Off. Loc.:

ignated agent of LP upon

New York Co. SSNY desig-

whom process against it may

nated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 7 Cornelia Street, New York, NY

be served and shall mail process to: c/o Business Filings Inc., 187 Wolf Rd., Ste. 101, Albany, NY 12205. Name/ addr. of genl. ptr. available from Sec. of State.Term: until

10014. Purpose: Any lawful

12/31/2053. Purpose: any law-

act or activity

ful act.

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

Vil: 11/07 - 12/12/2013

December 12, 2013

27

ACCOUNTING PROCEEDING FILE NO. 2012-47/A CITATION THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

TO:

Unknown Distributees, Attorney General of the State of New York, Albert F. Nika, Teri St. Hilaire, as guardian of Norma Nika, Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Crestwood Memorial Chapel, Jewel Bachrach.

deserves a “jewel” park.

We shouldn’t have to rely on the largesse of the wealthy to meet the city’s basic needs.

Thank you, Senator Squadron, for raising the issue in a way that won’t be ignored.

Stewart’s claims ‘comical’

Note: This citation is served upon you as required by law. You are not required to appear. If you fail to appear it will be assumed that you do not object to the relief requested. You have the right to have an attorney-at-law appear for you and you or your attorney may request a copy of the full account from the petitioner or petitioner’s attorney.

Vil: 11/28- 12/19/2013

To The Editor: Re “Filling Gruber’s big shoes” (Scoopy’s Notebook, Nov. 28): Richard Stewart apparently never heard of the “Mickey Mouse Vote.” It is a political maxim that if Mickey Mouse ran against the incumbent (and we may as well put Corey

Johnson in that category, practically speaking), Mickey Mouse gets 15 percent of the vote.

Also, less frivolously, Republicans make up about 15 percent of the electorate Downtown. So, any Republican candidate gets 15 percent.

The fact that Stewart only got 13 percent of the vote is nothing to brag about, by any stretch of the imagination.

Peter Reynolds E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 515 Canal St., Suite 1C, NY, NY 10013.

Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. The Villager does not publish anonymous letters.

Loyalty, long walks and...liver!

PET SET

BY HEATHER DUBIN

C

ookie is no stranger to the Tompkins Square Park dog run. David Joffe, who has lived in the same apartment in the East Village for 37 years, takes Cookie, a 10-year-old collie-German shepherd mix, outside for two-hour stretches, three times a day.

On a recent weeknight, Joffe was amongst a handful of dog owners chatting and bundled up against the cold while their pooches played in the park.

“I’m known to spend time here at the dog run,” he said.

Joffe is a flea market vendor and has worked at street fairs. His wares are seasondependent, from gloves and hats to costume jewelry and T-shirts.

“I like to sell funny items, like a peeing boy,” he said. “You fill him with water and he pees. I can’t find them anymore.”

Cookie benefits from Joffe’s flexible schedule, which allows him freedom during the week to bring her to the park for long jaunts.

“I like to keep her out for two hours because, otherwise, I feel guilty,” he said.

Cookie, who is Joffe’s third dog, is a rescue dog from the North Shore Animal League America.

The organization has mobile units for offsite adoption that circulate in Manhattan and the tri-state area, with about 45 animals onboard.

“I love Cookie,” Joffe said. “She’s very friendly to everybody, and she’s easygoing in the house.”

Uninhibited, Cookie approaches random people regularly to be pet by them. Joffe admits that he has met a lot of women through

PHOTO BY HEATHER DUBIN

Dated, Attested and Sealed. November 18, 2013. (Seal).

Hon. Nora S. Anderson, Surrogate. Diana Sanabria, Chief Clerk.

Schram & Graber, P.C. Counsel to the Public Administrator, New York County 22 Cortlandt Street, 16th Floor New York, New York 10007 (212) 896-3310

December 12, 2013

Continued from p. 19

K Webster

And to the heirs at law, next of kin and distributees of Elizabeth Goodman, if living and if any of them be dead, to their heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, legatees, executors, administrators, assignees and successors in interest whose names and places of residence unknown and cannot, after diligent inquiry, be ascertained by the petitioner herein; being the persons interested as creditors, legatees, devisees, beneficiaries, distributees, or otherwise in the estate of Elizabeth Goodman, deceased, who at the time of his death was a resident of 542 E. 5th Street, New York, New York 10009.

A petition having been duly filed by the Public Administrator of the County of New York, who maintains an office at 31 Chambers Street, Room 311, New York, New York 10007.

YOU ARE HEREBY CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the New York County Surrogate’s Court at 31 Chambers Street, New York, New York, on January 24, 2014, at 9:30 A.M. in Room 509, why the following relief stated in the account of proceedings, a copy of the summary statement thereof being attached hereto, of the Public Administrator of the County of New York as administrator of the goods, chattels and credits of said deceased, should not be granted: (i) that her account be judicially settled; (ii) that the above named person(s) be cited to show cause why such settlement should not be granted; (iii) that the Court dispense with service upon Norma Nika if deemed unnecessary; (iv) that the claim of Crestwood Memorial Chapel and Jewel Bachrach for decedent’s funeral expenses be rejected; (v) that the claim of Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the amount of $ 23,151.47 for nursing serviced be allowed; (vi) that the Surrogate approve the reasonable amount of compensation as reported in Schedules C and C-1 of the account of proceedings to the attorney for the petitioner for legal services rendered to the petitioner herein; (vii) that a hearing be held to determine the identity of the distributees at which time proof pursuant to SCPA Section 2225 may be presented, or in the alternative, that the balance of the funds be deposited with the Commissioner of Finance of the City of New York for the benefit of the decedent’s unknown distributees; (viii) that the persons above mentioned and all necessary and proper persons be cited to show cause why such relief should not be granted; (ix) that an order be granted pursuant to SCPA Section 307 where required or directed; and (x) for such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

28

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cookie just crumbles when she gets some chopped liver on top of her dog food.

Cookie, but none of these encounters have yielded a relationship.

One of Cookie’s favorite foods is chopped liver.

“Oy, she likes chopped liver,” Joffe said. He puts it on top of her dog food.

When she was younger, Cookie was much more active, but these days she is pretty sedate — unless it comes to protecting Joffe. At a street fair a few years ago, Cookie allegedly bit a police dog accompanying a police officer inspecting vendors.

The cop looked underneath Joffe’s table, where Cookie was resting, and she reacted to the police dog. According to Joffe, he does not know if Cookie did bite the dog, but the officer claimed she did.

“If you harm a police dog, it’s the same thing as harming a cop,” Joffe said. “I thought I might be arrested, and get into trouble.” Instead, he was told to wait until the officer reported the incident.

Finally, at the end of the fair, Joffe was allowed to leave without penalty, but not before posing with Cookie for a “mugshot” on the spot.

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Big turnaround in toad case as charges are reduced TOAD CASE, continued from p. 4

sported an “Occupy” button on his lapel —commended the D.A.’s Office for reducing the “almost comical” charges, but declined to accept the plea deal. Instead, he asked for the charges to be dropped entirely — both on factual grounds (they are subpoenaing the surveillance footage) and through what’s known as the “necessity defense”: That the rate of species extinction and climate fluctuations have become so severe that provocative acts are justified to call attention to the earth’s plight.

“Any harms that may have been caused

by Nehemiah and Billy are far outstripped by the continuing harm caused by Chase bank,” Stecklow told The Villager.

“Who causes more harm in the world, Reverend Billy or Jamie Dimon?” quipped Luckett’s attorney, Samuel Cohen, referring to JPMorgan Chase’s chairperson.

A smiling Luckett said he felt relieved to have escaped jail time. But he said the notion of pleading guilty to even a lowlevel misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass was “still upsetting.”

“It was the public lobby of a bank, so we don’t want to set a precedent that would make future actions by us or others illegal,” Luckett told The Villager.

“We are going to press forward until

we get a clear constitutional mustering of that,” added Talen.

“I want our campaign to continue,” the performance-artist preacher declared.

“Nehemiah and I and the Stop Shopping Choir want people around the world to enter hedge funds and banks that are participating in the destruction of our biosphere and expose them.”

Of course, when it comes to exposure, Talen couldn’t have asked for a better press agent than the Manhattan D.A.’s Office.

The threat of an actual jail sentence landed Talen and his toad warriors coverage on WNYC radio and WBAI’s “Democracy Now,” as well as in Vice and the British Guardian, even Forbes.

Index on Censorship, which monitors free speech worldwide, compared Talen and Luckett’s plight to the persecution of the feminist band Pussy Riot in Russia.

And at Monday’s hearing, Al Jazeera America was there to film the proceedings.

As the two activists went into court, nearly 14,000 people had signed a petition calling for the charges to be dropped, and they’d raised more than $15,000 to pay for their legal costs via indiegogo.com.

Even better, Reverend Billy’s show this Sunday at Joe’s Pub is sold out.

Not that the Rev is out of hot water entirely. The current complaint still claims he engaged in “tumultuous and violent

Chewing over new KitKat system MR. TECH-KNOW

BY PASHA FARMANARA

M

ore than 80 percent of the world’s smartphone market will soon get a big facelift with the release of Android’s new operating system, KitKat. Android names its operating systems after sweet treats, with previous O.S.’s having been named Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

Android is an operating system — for both smartphones and tablets — which was first backed by Google, which then bought it in 2005.

Google has already begun selling devices with the new software on its Nexus line of phones and tablets. Although Nexus is Google’s smartphone line, it also bought out Motorola in 2012.

Other devices are rumored to be receiving the O.S. update soon, mostly by early 2014.

KitKat, a.k.a. Android 4.4, is not as drastic of a change as iOS7 was for iPhones, but it’s still a major leap, functionally and aesthetically.

The most striking difference is how the phone navigates through apps. Android has silenced previous complaints about how confusing its operating system was.

The icons are larger, the buttons cleaner, and the interface has a “flowy” feel.

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There are not many functional changes, though — good news for those familiar with the system.

The most important change is the emphasis on decreased memory usage, produced by Android’s Project Svelte. Project Svelte has created a lighter, leaner operating system allowing phones with KitKat to run more smoothly and faster than ever.

This lighter system allows the O.S. to run on phones with less memory, which can result in less-expensive, quality smartphones.

There’s still one test KitKat must pass: How does it stand up to the iPhone’s iOS7?

It depends on the user.

Android began as a phone for tech-savvy users; its old ads showed robots, machines and laser beams. Meanwhile, iPhones are about simplicity. An old iPhone ad shows a hand, an iPhone, a white backdrop and a narrator telling you how simple it is to use.

Those who prioritize organization and simplicity will be more comfortable with an iPhone. An Android takes some getting used to, but once you “get it,” the phone’s functions are limitless.

Android is open-source, meaning anyone can take the system’s code, modify it, and redistribute it. This is a programmer’s dream, and allows for much more creativity from users. You can download modifications from other programs that fit your needs.

But these differences are fading, with iPhones and Androids increasingly resembling each other. There is no “better” system — but there can be one that is right for you.

conduct likely to cause public alarm.” At the hearing, Bornstein told the judge that one bank employee locked herself in the bathroom in tears.

The judge ordered all parties to submit their responses in January, after which she is scheduled to issue a written opinion on Feb. 27.

Her ruling may help define the parameters of free speech in the city.

Talen insists his troupe’s actions were in no way threatening. Although bank employees claimed the choir toads were shouting, “We are coming for you!” Billy says they were actually singing a song from the point of view of the toads and other threatened species, with the lyrics: “Humankind, we’re around you, we surround you.”

It’s the same song and dance that he and the Stop Shopping Choir have performed at scores of Chase branches and other banks across the U.S. and Europe.

What perhaps made the response to this protest different, Talen says, was that this was a “wealth management” branch of Chase that caters to higher-income clientele.

Talen concedes he flamboyantly urged the bank customers, several of whom were in cubicles meeting with portfolio managers, to either withdraw their funds from Chase or use their leverage to

change the bank’s investment priorities.

“It’s not a crime for a preacher to make someone cry,” observed Stecklow.

In fact, Luckett’s role in the demonstration, Talen says, was to pass out fliers and inform customers and employees, “This is a protest.”

With the threat of jail time over, Talen and Luckett and an exultant crowd of supporters gathered outside the courthouse for a press conference. They posed before giant puppets of the Statue of Liberty and the Scales of Justice, as members of the Stop Shopping Choir performed the Bill of Rights a cappella.

Talen vowed to continue his campaign targeting Chase as America’s leading “fossil fuel bank.”

Some may ask, Why single out Chase?

According to BankTrack.org, the company is a leading underwriter of controversial mountaintop removal mining projects here in the U.S. and abroad, and is heavily invested in the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian tar sands extraction, and the construction of new coal power plants around the world — though it’s a bit of a leap to tie Chase to the demise of the golden toad.

“We’re losing ecosystems. We’re losing species every day,” Talen warned, before getting into a cab to take his young daughter to preschool.

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EMPLOYMENT Modani New York, LLC is looking for a

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GET HELP WITH MORTGAGE PAYMENTS! CATSKILL VILLAGE DUPLEX FOR SALE A lovely affordable duplex. Live in the 3-bedroom unit and rent out the 2-bedroom one to minimize your living expenses.

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PHOTO BY PASHA FARMANARA

Currently sporting a paintjob by Hellbent, the University Place Denim & Supply outlet’s exterior will be a canvas for a rotating cast of artists.

Polo store goes to Hell(bent)

BY PASHA FARMANARA

P

olo Ralph Lauren is known for its subdued khaki pants and buttondown shirts, but its Denim & Supply store on 12th St. and University Place has taken on a splash of more colorful flair.

With the help of local artist Hellbent, the store has launched its first installment of the Art Wall Project. The project helps raise money for the School of Visual Arts. S.V.A. students and alumni were invited to the project’s opening.

The store is selling a shirt inspired by Hellbent’s work, which is available for both men and woman for $50.

Hellbent’s facade treatment of the store is the first installment of the Art Wall Project. According to the store’s Web site, the place’s exterior will continue to be used as a canvas for future artists.

“The Art Wall Project is a new initiative that supports self-expression through collaborations with emerging artists, who transform the Denim & Supply New York store’s facade into a large-scale work of art,” states the store’s Web site.

Neither the store nor the company had a role in designing or even influencing the facade artwork.

“That’s all me,” Hellbent said. “They had seen my work. I have murals like that everywhere, so they had actually teamed up with refinery29, a fashion art blog and found me. They then just gave me free rein to do whatever I chose with the store.

“It’s Denim & Supply, an offshoot brand of theirs which is geared more toward music and art background, I guess,” said Hellbent. “So that’s my color palette and my style.”

The store on 12th and University is one of only two Denim & Supply stores in the U.S., and is the brand’s flagship location.

Cooper students work on 3-in-1 system LUMEN, continued from p. 20

the primary fundraiser.

The neighborhood group has set up a Web site — indiegogo.com/projects/supportthe-cooper-lumen-design-challenge — to collect donations that will go toward purchasing supplies for students as they design and eventually produce the triple-feature power station. They hope to raise at least $10,000 by Jan. 15.

“Paul’s a genius, and rather than being motivated by profit, he’s just totally committed to this idea, and so we’re glad to fully support him on it,” said T.B.N.C. President Victor Papa.

Garrin said he hopes to show off a proto-

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type of the students’ work by the end of the coming semester, at Cooper’s Founders Day event next April. Once the design is perfected and more products can be made, he plans to work with T.B.N.C. and other community groups to place them in vulnerable Lower East Side areas.

Cumberbatch noted that, beyond serving a local need, the innovative Cooper Lumen power station could eventually be used by people in other places that are underserved or heavily affected by natural disasters.

“If it turns out to be really good, you could take it to a place like the Philippines, which has been destroyed by an even bigger natural disaster [than Sandy],” he said, “and, really, I could imagine someone taking this out to remote villages all over the world.”

LET’S GET LOCAL Tekserve has been in Chelsea for over 25 years.

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119 W 23rd St • 212.929.3645 • tekserve.com December 12, 2013

31

Home for the Holidays!

Chips and Salsa Platter

Party Platters

Cocktail Sandwich or Wrap Platter

An elegant selection of bite size gourmet sandwich or wraps, freshly prepared with an array of cold cuts and assorted cheese from around the world on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes. (served with mayonnaise, mustard and honey mustard on the side)

Sm $50.00 (35 pcs) Md $65.00 (45 pcs) Lg $80.00 (65 pcs)

Large Shrimp Cocktail Platter

The perfect platter for any occasion.

Choose one of the following homemade fresh salsas: mild, medium or hot, plus complimentary guacamole.

Sm $30.00 (6-8p) Md $45.00 (10-12p) Lg $55.00 (15-18p)

Crudité Platter

A wide variety of crispy fresh vegetables.

Complimentary with the platter is a choice of two dips.

Sushi

Finger Food

20 pcs rolls- California Rolls

(Chicken or beef) $8.99 p/p

California Roll Platter $35.00

Amish Sushi Platter

70 pcs rolls- Tuna, salmon, ebi, eel, yellowtail, avocado and cucumber

$85.00

Sushi Delight Platter

Poached large shrimp beautifully arranged and garnished with lemon wedges and cocktail sauce.

Sm $50.00 (8-10p) Md $65.00 (12-14p) Lg $85.00 (16-18p)

35 pcs rolls- Tuna, salmon, eel, avocado, cucumber. 10 pcs nigiri- Tuna, salmon yellowtail, shrimp, octopus, squid.

Sm $70.00 (6-8p) Md $90.00 (10-12p) Lg $130.00 (15-20p)

Heroes By Foot

$65.00

Fresh Mozzarella Platter

The perfect appetizer: homemade mozzarella cheese, sliced Holland stem tomato, sun dried tomato, fresh basil with olive oil and balsamic vinegar elegantly designed in a floral display.

Pick from these delicious options; Amish Style, American, Vegetarian and Italian (served with mayonnaise, mustard and honey mustard on the side).

Chicken Cutlets, grilled or fried (served with roasted vegetables and fresh mozzarella).

Sm $45.00 (8-10p) Md $55.00 (10-12p) Lg $70.00 (14-18p)

2 foot $45.00 (6-8p) 4 foot $90.00 (12-14p) 6 foot $130.00 (18-20p)

Assorted Cheese Platter

Royal Sandwich or Wrap Platter

A unique selection of imported and domestic cheeses garnished with fresh fruits or a gourmet selection of olives with assorted crackers or sliced bread on the side.

X-Sm $40.00 (4-6p) Sm $60.00 (8-10p) Md $80.00 (12-14p) Lg $100.00 (16-18p)

Oven Baked Hors D’oeuvres

A delightful selection of bite size, handmade hors d’oeuvres, including potato puffs, spinach turnover, mini meatballs, mushroom crowns and pigs in a blanket.

Md $55.00 (50 pcs, 8-10p) Lg $110.00 (100 pcs, 16-20p)

An endless array of fresh cold cuts and wraps, all made with assorted cheeses served on a variety of artisan breads and wraps with lettuce and tomato. (served with mayonnaise, mustard and honey mustard on the side)

$8.49 (p/p)

Dessert Platter

A delicious assortment of brownies, cookies, and chocolate garnished with fresh berries.

Salmon Platter

Served chilled or poached with dill sauce, or grilled with teriyaki glaze.

Sm $60 (6-8p) Lg $100 (10-15p)

Meat Entrees

Mini Kebab

Chicken fingers

with special house sauce $8.99 p/p

Mini shrimp kebab $11.99 p/p Stuffed chicken breast

with spinach and feta cheese $8.99 p/p

Mini meatballs $8.99 p/p Buffalo chicken wings with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing $7.99 p/p

Eggplant rollatini $7.99 p/p

Hot Pasta Trays

Marinara, Ala Vodka, Alfredo Siciliana, Milanese Suggested with penne

Baked Ziti

Ziti Baked with Ricotta, Mozzarella, Romano Cheese, Spices with Red Sauce

Half Tray $40.00 (8-10p) Full Tray $80.00 (20-30p)

Stuffed Turkey or Chicken Breast with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Chicken Parmigiana Chicken Franchese in Lemon Sauce Chicken Marsala Swedish Meatballs Italian Meatballs

For all meat entrees please choose one side dish: mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, white or yellow rice.

Half Tray $55.00 (8-10p) Full Tray $100.00 (18-20p)

Meat Lasagna

Half Tray $50.00 (8-12p) Full Tray $100.00 (18-25p)

Salads

Arugula Salad

Mushroom, Cherry Tomato, Parmesan Cheese

Mediterranean Salad

Romaine, Onion, Olives, Cucumber, Tomato, Feta

X-Sm $35.00 (4-6p) Sm $50.00 (8-10p) Md $65.00 (12-14p) Lg $85.00 (16-18p)

Fancy Mesclun Salad Cucumber, Tomato, Mixed Bell Peppers.

Md $40.00 (10-12p) Lg $50.00 (15-18p)

Please check out our full Holiday Menu at www.amishintribeca.com.

Amish Market Tribeca 53 Park Place, New York, NY 10007 T: (212) 608-3863 • F: (212) 608-3864 • amishcatering@gmail.com

32

December 12, 2013

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