Village Star-Revue January 2025

THE VILLAGE

New Feature Drinking with Katherine... page 8

STAR REVUE

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COMMUNITY JOURNALISM FO R D O W N T O W N M A N H AT TA N

JANUARY 2025

INSIDE

Map courtesy of City Limits

Saying NO to the city of Yes: Council Member Chris Marte on truly affordable housing Interview by Phyllis Eckhaus

W

hen the City of Yes—a voluminous 1,386 page set of zoning text amendments—was approved by the City Council 31-20 in December, all but one of the 20 dissenting votes against the proposal came from council members from the outer boroughs. They voiced fears the Mayoral initiative, which was marketed as an affordable housing proposal, would unleash unchecked development and kill their neighborhoods, especially in communities filled with one- and two-family homes.

DANTE'S INTERVIEW PAGE 11

Manhattan Council Member Christopher Marte was the only Manhattan Council Member to vote no on City of Yes. Marte represents Manhattan’s District 1, including much of the Lower East Side, as well as Chinatown, SoHo, and Tribeca.

CRYSTAL FIELDS SINGS PAGE 4

MUSIC WITH KURT PAGE 5

LIFE IN THE REEL WORLD I held onto my Nokia cell phone until it basically dissolved in my hand. Having observed people staring into their smartphones in a sort of hypnotic state I didn’t want to join the club. But it’s a

Village Star-Revue

PE:Why don’t we just start with the reasons you voted no.

CM: I saw the proposal as a giveaway to real estate developers. That’s not why I became a Council member.

I became a Council member because I wanted to fight against displacement. I wanted to fight against gentrification. I want to make sure people who live in our community can continue to live here and people who are raised here can find an affordable place to live. I felt like City of Yes did not achieve either of those things.

I believe we’re at an affordability cri-

WALKING WITH COFFEE

by R.J. Cirillo

We wanted to know the reasoning behind his vote and spoke to him in December (this interview has been edited for length).

big club and you must join.

I wound up getting an iPhone 13, and Jane added Facebook and assorted apps and I became a full-fledged member, checking my phone every spare minute for the email that would change my life. Right.

Then I started watching reels, 60 second bits of visual info.

You click on one and could doom scroll forever! You can start on something like a bunch of Mountain Goats,

sis. And for a citywide rezoning measure not to mandate affordability, it’s a shame.

When you look at our unhoused population, people living in overpopulated shelters, these are the people trying to look for a home.

The City of Yes supplies only market rate development. It gives developers the option of including affordable housing, “voluntary inclusionary housing” (VIH). What we’ve seen is, when you give VIH, this option, to developers, they don’t take it. Affordability is not a profit-generating met-

scaling a sheer vertical rock wall (one my favorites) followed by, a heart surgeon with advice on surviving cardiac arrest followed by a voluptuous woman waking by in a bikini, followed by an expert saying should eat 12 eggs every day, followed by an expose of the Aliens who built the pyramids and are still living in hidden chambers beneath, followed by a bikini clad woman on a trampoline , followed by an expert saying not to eat vegetables

Chris Marte speaking at City Hall last October. (photo by George Fiala)

ric. It doesn’t serve their shareholders and investors.

Of course, there are some things I agree with in City of Yes, like in “town centers” allowing one story commercial buildings to build to three stories, with added residential housing.

But eliminating mandated affordable housing? No, I’m sorry.

(continued on page 4)

because they will kill you, then a mongoose fighting a cobra, another expert advising to eat ONLY ribeye steaks, and then if you’re lucky some more mountain goats, this time being chased by a snow leopard.

Taking a breath here.

Now my boomer brain is pretty much calcified, so this stuff has little effect on me, but imagine the effect it will have on the current generation of teenagers who have total access to it.

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How do they figure out what is REAL…. and what is just a REEL! It’s a sticky wicket!

All very understandable sentiment but we can’t stay here (continued on page 12)

January 2025, Page 1

FROM THE PUBLISHER Editor & Publisher George Fiala Reporter

Phyllis Eckhaus

Music

Kurt Gottschalk

Medea Hoar

Art

Steve DiLauro

Lee Klein

Jazz

George Grella

Film

Dante A. Ciampaglia

Books

Michael Quinn

Cartoons

Marc Jackson

WebMaster

Tariq Manon

Design

George Fiala

Ad Sales

Payton Cuddy

Mary Beth Hennessy

Merry Band of Contributors

R. J. Cirillo Phebe Du Pont Kate Walter Michele Herman Oscar Fock Dana Costantino Website

villagestar-revue.com Phone

917 652-9128 FOR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING OR EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES, email gbrook8344@gmail.com we are ALWAYS looking for writers and ads!

Member 2024

C

Reality and Perception

ertain things that people tell you stay with you. Quite a few decades ago I was the General Manager of The Villager, working for publisher Mike Armstrong. This was a couple of years after he purchased the paper and was hard at work turning it into a prize-winning paper that his Brooklyn Phoenix had become.

He added more reporters and more pages and it became my job to figure out how to keep it all going, moneywise. I tried as hard as I could to sell more and more advertising, going after all the local businesses and also the SoHo News and Village Voice advertisers, often offering large discounts for upfront payments, so we could pay the printer and make it to the next issue.

Needless to say, it became a pretty stressful job, and I spent a lot of time at the laundromat across the street from our 88 Seventh Avenue office getting away from it all by playing PacMan. Occasionally I would go with Mike to different meetings around town where he would talk up the paper with anyone who would listen. And when people asked how it was going, he would inevitably tell them the most fabulous stories about how well we were doing and how much money we were making, and of course how much better the paper was than under the previous owners.

While no doubt the paper was better editorially, I couldn't imagine that our financial situation could be any worse.

I asked him why he was saying we were doing so great.

"Nobody is interested in hearing bad news," is what he told me.

It was also true that despite our books and our offices being generally a big mess, he took enormous effort into creating a great looking paper. Appearances were the most important thing, is what he told me. Our product is the most important thing.

This morning I started my day by reading James Carville's NY Times essay: "I Was Wrong About the 2024 Election.

Here’s Why." He writes: "Mr. Trump, for the first time in his political career, decisively won by seizing a swath of middle-class and low-income voters focused on the economy. Democrats have flat-out lost the economic narrative. The only path to electoral salvation is to take it back. Perception is everything in politics, and a lot of Americans perceive us as out to lunch on the economy — not feeling their pain or caring too much about other things instead."

The highlighting is mine. That's the point that Armstrong, who aside from being a publisher had a career in politics, was telling me.

During this past election season, Trump kept repeating how much better things had been for the average worker when he was president. More than half the country believed him. The fact that this was not actually true was never made a Democratic talking point.

Here are the actual numbers (this is average household income by year)

Publisher George Fiala

2017.................. $36,786 2018.................. $39,317 2019.................. $41,426 2020.................. $42,176 2021.................. $43,716 2022.................. $47,001 2023.................. $50,902 It sure looks to me that earnings kept increasing quite healthily through both Trump and Biden's terms, the math would probably tell me that income in the past three Biden years increased faster than during Trump's four years. And yet, it became the perception that the Trump administration was much better for workers economically—facts being much less important than perception. Trump was mostly responsible for the perception, as he always belittle the country (except of course when he's in charge).

I recommend Carville's analysis and suggestions for the future of the Democratic party. While we may think that things like human rights and social justic are important (and they are), voters care about their pocketbooks.

He also writes: "I am an 80-year-old man and can see clearly that we are barreling toward a nontraditional and decentralized media environment. Podcasts are the new print newspapers and magazines."

He's right of course, but I happen to love this medium and can't quit it.

Member 2024

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January 2025

The East Village's Christmas welcome

O

n December 8th I stopped by the Theater for the New City to drop off copies of the December issue of this paper. As I walked in, a whole lot of people, including the legendary Crystal Field, one of their founders, were

costumed up and leaving the theater.

I followed behind to see what was going on and their informal procession ended up in Tompkins Park.

What unfolded was their 33rd annual Tree Lighting in Tompkins Square Park - a neighborhood tradition as evidenced by the happy local

FUNNY SIDE UP

BY MARC JACKSON

DUCK!

crowd gathered to hear Christmas carols and Crystal's dramatic reading (by heart) of Clement Clarke Moore The Night Before Christmas.

Accompanied by keyboards and guitar, a bevy of beautiful voices (the Carolers of Olde New York) sang for about an hour as it got dark in

preparation for the lighting of a tall pine behind the stage.

Afterwards, people milled around and enjoyed cider and hot chocolate courtesy of the Veselka food truck. George Fiala

Do you like walking around the East Village?

Meet the eclectic local merchants that create the unique street scene and show them how a relatively inexpensive ad can get their store in front of thousands of local readers of the Star-Revue.

The Village Star-Revue is a print newspaper distributed free of charge in the finest apartment buildings, supermarkets, pizza shops, theaters and local shops in both the East and West Village.

We are looking for people with patience to develop relationships with our local institutions and businesses. This is a gig job - you are your own boss.

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Your commission is 30%.

©COPYRIGHT 2025 MARC JACKSON AND WEIRDO COMICS

Village Star-Revue

Call or write George Fiala gbrook8344@gmail.com (917) 652-9128

#21 www.villagestar-revue.com

January 2025, Page 3

Marte Interview (continued from page 1)

And yet, there are so many people who have been persuaded that trickle-down works, that if you build more housing of any kind that it will ultimately promote affordability.

What do you say to those people?

You know supply and demand works for oranges, for commodities. If there’s a crisis in the orange market, there’s not going to be a lot of supply, so the demand for it is going to go up.

But when we’re talking about one of the most complex real estate markets in the world where developers have the upper hand, where they hire the most expensive lobbyists to influence legislation, where they create million dollar PACs to elect politicians to do their bidding, when they have lawyers that can kick out any tenant, whether it’s a legal or illegal situation—they run the board game of Monopoly in New York City. Why are we allowing developers to have a massive say on the powers that we have as a Council?

I don’t believe in trickle-down economics when it comes to the real estate market. It just doesn’t work.

We’ve been developing a lot in my district. When you’re on the FDR and you’re looking at Queens, I remember even 15 years ago, the only skyscraper you saw was the Citibank building.

Now you can barely see it because there’s so many hi-rise towers in front of it and it seems like every single week, there’s a new building going up.

What we see—not only my district but in Long Island City and Greenpoint, all these areas that have been upzoned drastically—housing prices just continue to rise. The affordable housing that’s there is typically threatened by speculation and shark investors, who really go after low-income communities to try to take over their properties. So trickle-down economics for real estate in New York does not work and whoever is telling you otherwise is either highly confused or representing their own special interests.

Yet you look at the mainstream media and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has done an apparently fabulous job because the City of Yes gets packaged as an af-

fordable housing proposal. How do we move from propaganda to facts?

I think what we’re doing today, this interview, is important, right? Writing about the other side of the story.

One thing that I realized through the City of Yes proposal is that there are organizers in all these communities around the city that believe in the same philosophy I believe in—that we shouldn’t allow the real estate developers to control what happens in New York City, who gets to live here. And I think what we need to do is build a city-wide coalition to really push back.

And so, I am optimistic. You know, when I sat through hours of that hearing—I think other than the chair, I was the person sitting in that chamber longest—something really clicked in me.

Whether you live in the northern Bronx, whether you live or Manhat-

But this administration just eliminated that G district designation.

And so we have a lot of these buildings where their property values have skyrocketed overnight.

Phyllis Eckhaus speaks with the City Council representative about land use issue. (continued from page 1)

tan, whether you live in, in eastern Queens, there’s people that understand what’s happening in New York.

But we don’t have a structure to really organize all these communities to push back. And so, I think that’s what we have to do. It›s going to be a hard road, right?

Would you lay out some of the top flaws in in the City of Yes proposal besides the lack of an affordable housing mandate?

I want to talk about something specific to my district. Chinatown and the Lower East Side have 90 percent of the G districts in the city.

Page 4 Village Star-Revue

When the city decided to rezone other manufacturing districts, there was a comprehensive plan. The Flower District—there was a huge debate that happened there about how would we build affordable housing. Soho/ NoHo, it was a two-and-a-half-year dialogue.

Interview with Chris Marte

Next year’s primary is going to be an interesting one. You know, who becomes our Mayor? And how real estate supports certain candidates and whether those who don’t get that support can win. But we have shown that they can win. REBNY spent tens of thousands of dollars against me. And we were able to organize and educate our communities to show them the reality of the situation.

Chris Marte campaigning.

Broadway and Division Street, you see warehouses. When you go to the second and third floors, there is light manufacturing and there are still some factories operating there. G districts were a way to preserve the kind of light manufacturing that has always been in Chinatown and continues to be, though maybe not at the scale that it once was.

G districts are light manufacturing districts. When you walk around East

And what we’re going to see is market rate and luxury condos replace a lot of these commercial buildings and warehouses in Lower Manhattan and none of it’s going to be affordable.

I asked the Mayor, I said “Look, if you want to talk about the G districts, let’s find a way where we could preserve the light manufacturing, but either build housing above it or in certain cases allow for conversion of light manufacturing to residential where we can trigger some sort of affordability metric.” And the administration did not even want to have that conversation.

This is something so specific. City of Yes was more than a thousand three hundred pages long. And so there are these little specific things that might not make the news. But there’s going to be a lot of communities that are going to be drastically changed overnight because of what was hidden in the weeds.

Were there improvements you were able to make to the proposal?

Yes, we were able to limit some of the worst aspects. When the measure first

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came to the public, the city wanted to do infill [build on open space] in New York City Housing Authority public housing. We successfully organized and pushed back on that and they took that out.

One of the biggest fears that I have is that if you start allowing market rate development in public housing, public housing residents are eventually going to be kicked out and so, I think this was a huge win for the preservation of public housing on public land.

Are there things the city could have changed that would have switched your vote?

You know, it’s really hard when you›re trying to do a one-size-fits-all proposal for the whole city.

I really wanted this administration to look back at Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and make it better, right? (Editor’s note: MIH, a tool of the de Blasio administration, gave breaks to developers, in return requiring they build a percentage of “affordable” units. Critics contended that those units were priced far out of reach of working-class New Yorkers.)

I wanted to say, “Look, we have something that is really one of the only instruments that we have to build affordable housing. Let›s make it better.” Let›s make it affordable for everyday New Yorkers. And let›s expand the percentage of affordable housing because we›re giving developers everything that they want, right? We›re giving them more bulk.

We›re giving them more height. We›re giving them tax incentives, right? Give us something in return.

I think typically when you look at community-based rezoning, there’s always a give and take. But I felt like within the text for City of Yes, it was mostly a gift.

What kind of lobbying and by whom did you experience?

Mostly from the administration. You know, at my office we don’t talk to lobbyists. So we don›t get those phone calls to begin with because people know, we don›t pick up.

But we did what we typically do. We educated our community boards. I’m one of the only Council offices that has a full-time land use director, and he went to Community Board 1, Community Board 2, Community Board 3 to make presentations. We did two Town Halls on the City of Yes; we really wanted to make sure that people understood what was happening.

So, you know, probably I didn’t get as much lobbying as other council members did. But the administration did try to, you know, throw out some carrots potentially to go to get my support.

How would you characterize the influence of REBNY on city government?

It’s massive. Whether it’s on the electoral side where they spend a lot of money in supporting candidates who support real estate interests, or when they stop good things from happening.

Like there’s myself and a few other colleagues who want to pass community-based rezoning plans that were created by the community, plans that would add housing but make (continued on next page)

January 2025

Marte Interview (continued from previous page)

sure that we add truly affordable housing. And when we try to talk to City Planning, when we try to talk to Housing Preservation and Development, we get “no.” And we understand who is pulling the strings.

What would you like to see happen to promote truly affordable housing?

I do think we need to relook at mandatory inclusionary housing, right? If we want to have a city-wide approach, it’s going to come through there.

And we want to have a more localized approach. We need to support community-based rezoning policies. For example, we have one in District 1 called the Chinatown Working Group, which would rezone the Chinatown area and the Lower East Side area.

And it would mandate, not only new affordability, deep affordability, but it would also curtail speculation by actually setting a ceiling on how high these buildings can be.

What’s the status of that plan?

We did have some talks with City Planning. They were distracted by City of Yes. And because they don›t see this as the most pro-radical upzoning plan, profitable for real estate, they have not made it a priority.

What happens next city-wide? And in District 1?

I think my office understands the negative consequences that can come out of this plan. One of the biggest fears that I have is that now that developers and small landlords have the potential to build a little bit higher, build a little bit wider, it threatens a lot of the rent-stabilized buildings that we have in our district.

We already face those pressures. We see buildings get condemned left and right. But now, there’s much more incentive for these landlords not to give care and support to these buildings. My office—and hopefully city agencies—can do the work to make sure that these landlords are not just abandoning their responsibility in the name of profit.

We get dozens of tenants a day that are going through harassment, that don’t have a lease. We go with tenants to housing court to make sure that they have support. And so this just, you know, makes our job harder. But this is what we›re committed to doing.

Do I recall correctly that one of the tweaks to City of Yes was to add new Department of Buildings staff?

That came outside of the City of Yes text amendment.

I honestly think if City of Yes was all that we were just voting for, it would have not have passed. Even pro-development Council members might have an issue with the text. And that should show you that it took the Mayor and the Governor to give us five billion dollars to get 31 votes in the City Council. It’s remarkable and I think if you put it in that context you realize that they really didn›t have the support to move forward with this proposal.

Part of that five billion dollars is intended to go not only to additional staff—City Planning, HPD, Department of Buildings—

Village Star-Revue

SOME TAKEAWAYS: "The City of Yes supplies only market rate development. It gives developers the option of including affordable housing, “voluntary inclusionary housing” (VIH).

What we’ve seen is, when you give VIH, this option, to developers, they don’t take it."

"When we’re talking about one of the most complex real estate markets in the world where developers have the upper hand, where they hire the most expensive lobbyists to influence legislation, where they create million dollar PACs to elect politicians to do their bidding, when they have lawyers that can kick out any tenant, whether it’s a legal or illegal situation— they run the board game of Monopoly in New York City."

"What we’re going to see is market rate and luxury condos replace a lot of these commercial buildings and warehouses in Lower Manhattan and none of it’s going to be affordable." but some of it›s going to be allocated for actual affordable housing. For money to build affordable housing and to support home ownership, and also infrastructure, because there›s certain places in our city that only have one sewer line for half a dozen communities.

It just shows they got desperate. I’ve never seen a rezoning before that was able to get five billion dollars out of it.

What’s the oversight with the five billion dollars to make sure it gets used for good?

That’s the question that we’re going to have to ask, right? We have a mayor that constantly cuts budgets of city agencies left and right. That’s what he’s known for the past three years.

Libraries—universally loved, $50 million dollars in a $115 billion dollar budget—targeted.

One can go to church on Sunday and

offer prayers for next year’s budget, but still, it’s going to have to be the Council that pushes back. We have to hold the line and remind ourselves that that money should be there.

We signed an agreement that said this money should be allocated, but everything is up for debate. People forget about the deal and it never happens.

Can you characterize the media coverage of City of Yes? There’s two ways you can look at it.

Some of these newspapers are afloat because of the real estate industry buying ads and donating to their foundations, right? You open up The New York Times and you see full page ads and so you have to know that there is a biased tilt toward the real estate industry. If you count how many pro-development articles they write versus stories about families

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being kicked out, it’s like 80/20.

But something like City of Yes is really complicated and for reporters that are well intentioned, they might not have the time to investigate. It’s thousands of pages of work and maybe they don’t have a land use expert that they can ask what does this actually mean? How is this going to be visualized? The city makes it complicated.

So you see a lot of articles talking about just the key points the administration provides. The administration gives out a press release and says, we›re going to build 80,000 new apartments.

We›re going to build just a little bit everywhere and that›s what you write about because reporters are underpaid and papers are understaffed.

And so you give reporters the benefit of the doubt.

That’s why we do our own things. If people want to see a different perspective, they can come to our town halls, they can read our newsletters. And, hopefully that adds a check and balance to this David and Goliath story.

So chances are you’re going to face YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard” or pro-development) challengers?

Yes, I have two challengers who would have voted “yes” and they’re blatant about how they feel about trickledown economics, how we need more supply, and how that’s the number one problem that our city faces.

I’m happy to have that debate. I get challenged almost every time I’m up for election so nothing is new, but it helps me educate my community.

I›ve been successful because voters understand it’s a pocketbook issue.

People’s rents are going up and even though they might not know why, they feel the pain. When I connect that to speculation, when I connect that to the lack of support they receive as tenants, people get it.

What else should our readers know?

Right now, the mayor’s trying to start a charter revision commission that’s focused on the land use process. I believe he’s going to try to take away the powers of the City Council that we have to negotiate on zoning deals.

And so if you think the City of Yes was bad, well it’s back.

I think we’re going to need to organize all these communities to vote “no” on his propositions because sometimes the only good things that the Council gets out of rezonings is through negotiation. And the only way we understand that people are not damaging our environment is because now they have to fill out an environmental impact statement.

If the mayor starts to cripple the only processes we have to understand how these developments are going to affect our communities, it’s going to be disastrous for working-class families in New York City.

January 2025, Page 5

COFFEE CORNER: Porto Rico Importing Co.

P

orto Rico Coffee is one of those places that makes you feel good the second you walk in the door. A coffee (and tea) classic for New Yorkers who have a big love for a Cup O’ Joe. Porto Rico’s flagship location on Bleecker Street is the first stop for many of us downtown dwellers on our walk to work in the morning or before we grab the Sunday paper.

It is where we meet up with friends to grab a light roast with soy or an Earl

by Dana Costantino

hope that you enjoy learning about all things Porto Rico then, now, and for the future as much as I did.

Dana - What year was Porto Rico founded and which location was the first location?

Peter - Porto Rico was founded in 1907 by Patsy Albanase. The store at some point moved across the street to 195 Bleecker, and then back again.

201 Bleecker street has been home to Porto Rico since at least 1917.

The current iteration of the store has been this way since 1975 when my f ther took it over from his father. Our most recent renovation was in 2023.

Who handles the bean selection and roasting and how often does Porto Rico get new flavors?

We offer premum examples of sp cialty coffees grown from most major coffee producing countries on earth, and we break them down geographically for our customers. We bring on some specialties when we find fun or interesting varieties or coffees produced with interesting processes.

Grey before a long walk through the park. In other words, it is part of the fabric of our downtown New York City life. I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter, whose family has been running Porto Rico for well over a century. I

A Visit to the Cloisters Transformed Me:

We roast daily like a bakery, and cup coffees often to keep the quality exceptional. We offer a var ety of blends and offer custom blending to our customers as our stock and trade.

You have many regular customers, what part does the community play in the spirit of Porto Rico?

Porto Rico is a very local establish-

They look so life like. We must be very careful of the paint when we clean the statues.

My parents were surprised when I

A Winter Fantasy & Photos by Kate Walter

I

Tomorrow I will work in the chapel and polish the benches and change the altar linens. I am excited to receive this assignment from Mother Superior, although I also like working in the garden, and learning about the medicinal herbs. The bishop is coming later this month, so we have to dust and polish all the beautiful statues.

My favorite statues are those of the Three Kings coming to visit Jesus.

Page 6 Village Star-Revue

You also have tea, how much of the business is tea vs coffee and what is a favorite coffee bean choice and tea choice?

I would say that we really try to bea House which provides all things coffee and tea related. Like our coffees, we maintain excellent examples of commonly consumed teas of all varieties.

We carry Greens, Blacks, herbals, and a good batch of spices and herbs. We sell more coffee than we do tea, but we sell a healthy volume.

We produce our own Earl Gray in house; as well as hand blend a number of our herbal and flavored black teas. I really think our Earl Grey is very good, but I personally drink Darjeeling’s like our 2nd Flush Margret’s Hope.

What are the plans for Porto Rico now and in the future?

Keep roasting coffee! Our biggest goal is to keep the store as historical as possible while offering contemporary coffees and coffee related equipment. Just because the store is old doesn’t mean the selection has to become “old school”. We try to stay on the bleeding edge of coffee, and see ourselves working to main-

who I am- a nun and a writer.

I cannot stop my writing habit. I love being in the library. When I go into the scriptorium to copy the Bible with my quill pen, (that is another one of my jobs), I sneak out my paper or parchment.

And I write in my diary. Maybe a demon has possessed me because I cannot stop myself. I should confess my sin to a priest.

’m on a field trip to the Cloisters with the senior center. I have not been here in 50 years, like before I moved to New York. It’s so quiet and meditative here inside a medieval monastery. I love this atmosphere and feel transported back to the Middle Ages. I’m time travelling back to an earlier life. I’m transformed into a nun.

I’m Sister Kathleen enjoying the winter sun in the garden. I’m preparing to enter the chapel for Vespers. I’m walking around in my nun habit, Rosary beads hanging from my waist. I nod to the other sisters as I glide past them. I am part of a community.

ment, which prides itself on staying “in stasis” as time passes and the world changes. Its very “village” oriented, and a lot of our customers are locals whom parents were customers, and so on and so forth.

The Three Kings chose to enter this cloistered order.

That’s because I’m known for being sociable but I decided to devote my life to God and live in this community in harmony with nature. The only job I dislike is kitchen duty and washing the pots and pans. But I offer this up as service. Any chore I dislike I do with a smile and offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory, as my mother taught me.

The one habit I’ve kept from my outside life is writing in my diary. This is a sin, so I keep my journal hidden under my mattress in my cell. If Mother Superior finds out, I will be in trouble and I might get punished, but this is

It is not just that I am writing in secret but the content is about my lust.

“Bless Me Father for I have sinned. I’m keeping a personal journal and this excites me. I’m writing about Sister Joan, beautiful Sister Joan. I’m so happy when she sits next to me in chapel. I get a warm feeling when we are working or praying together. I want to reach out and touch her hand but I resist this temptation. My thoughts about her are sinful but I cannot stop them.”

Will I have the courage to confess this?

I’m nearing the end of my one year novitiate and must decide if I want to make permanent vows or leave and return to the outside world. I’m praying to make the right decision. I miss my family and my mother’s cooking.

Mother makes the best rabbit stew with potatoes. Father keeps our home warmer than this freezing monastery.

But this life on earth is just temporal. I am torn. If I leave I will rejoin my loving family but I may never see Sister Joan again.

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"Just because the store is old doesn’t mean the selection has to become “old school.” tain our pedigree that our customers have grown to know and love.

Since New Yorkers love their coffee, do you feel that it is special to bring it to them, and what makes you want to keep the business going year after year?

I, as well as the other members of our family, live and breathe Porto Rico.

I grew up here, I met my wife here, I have children that run about here. We work hard to provide the best quality coffees and teas with a really really good edge for customer service; emphasis on Custom. We do a lot of hand holding, and sp cial deliveries, and note keeping for individual customers.

We pride ourselves on being a place where people can come in and get their “regular.” The world is constantly changing and growing and New York as a City has its ebbs and flows; but Porto Rico remains constant.

Suddenly, I’m interrupted from my contemplation as my phone pings.

I’m jolted back to the present to the year 2025. I’m sitting on a bench in a museum in Manhattan and it’s time to get the shuttle bus back to Westbeth Artists Housing. I pick up my down jacket at the coat check and I’m converting back to Kate.

On the way out, I stop in the book shop and examine a book called How to Live Like a Monk: Medieval Wisdom for Modern Life. I will order it and transform my life.

And who knows? Maybe I’ll meet a former nun at a lesbian bar in the Village.

The Garden at the Cloisters

January 2025

It's January, the museums will be less crowded

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think I can count the number of museums that I visited in 2024 on one hand. I suppose that if I included libraries and gardens in that figure, I might extend a few more fingers. Still, it’s not a sum of which I am proud.

Whenever I make up my mind to go to a museum, I seem to suddenly find myself without a single pair of clean socks, necessitating a laundry day without delay—and then there’s the auto-renewing gym membership that watches me with dollar sign eyes, its neglect Dickensian in degree. And so, at the end of another year in this cultural tapestry of a city, I find myself cut out of the artistic conversation by my very own shears.

Perhaps I am alone in my mismanagement of time and sieve-like memory for household chores, but I do think that of all my excuses for not making the most of this city’s cultural institutions, there is one on which we can all agree…

Perhaps it’s a perennially over-played card, but tourism truly does trump the inclination, and sometimes even the interest, of most would-be museumgoers I know. And it’s not just stereotypical New York snootiness—consider for a moment the crowds, the cameras flashing, the matching Michelin Man coats. Have you ever tried to really take in a Rothko under the duress that defines the MoMA midDecember? I couldn’t even enjoy a simple can of Cambell’s soup!

But what luck, then, that tourism subsides just slightly after the winter holidays! And such a miracle, too, that many of the shows that I wanted to see in December are still on for a few weeks in January…

In 2025, I am resolved to remember that exhibitions outlast FSA funds—even if only slightly. Let us make haste, then, and meet a friend for afternoon tea this January at the Neue Galerie! I cannot promise a complete parting of the tourist sea, but at least we won’t have to crane our necks quite so awkwardly.

If I manage to attend at least two of the shows on the following shortlist, I will likely let myself off the hook for all

Village Star-Revue

by Phebe DuPont

my other resolutions!

In the spirit of Robert Burns, I think it right to start the new year with a nostalgic adventure. The Museum of the City of New York held its third annual holiday baking competition this past December, inviting twenty skilled New Yorkers to create gingerbread miniatures of city scenes, architecture, and landmarks. All five boroughs were represented this year and the judges encouraged competitors to interpret the “iconic” theme personally, resulting in a quaint and convenient tour of the city that takes the viewer down many different memory lanes.

I am determined to catch a train uptown and let the frosted skyscrapers, fondant taxis, and gingerbread pizza boxes melt my icy heart. “The Great Borough Bake-Off 2024” entries are on display through January 12th. Visitors are invited to exercise their right to vote in candy competitions.

For tickets, times, and directions, visit The Museum of the City of New York website: mcny.org.

My artistic appetite whet, I shall set sail for the Crete of New York City’s cultural institutions: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you can keep your wits about you and I can secure some suitably long string, I am fairly confident that we can navigate the labyrinth of galleries well enough to take in at least one exhibition before it expires—or we do…

I suggest starting with the two shows that close on January 12th. Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet looks lovely to me, though I am a sucker for fragmentary leaves and jewelry fit for a deity. If we’re quite lucky, the Himalayan devotional art will offer us a sliver of enlightenment, which we can use to locate the next exhibition on the list: Mary Sully: Native Modern. I may be a bit of an art bumpkin, for I had not heard of the Dakota artist prior to my researching this piece, but I like to think that I have something of an eye—two, actually, and both went wide with delight when I saw Sully’s patterned triptychs previewed on the Met’s website. The artist’s abstract depiction of dear old Mayor La Guardia alone merits a trip.

Siena: The Rise of Painting, 13001350 closes on January 26th and Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876-Now, which features live performances among its many media, ends its run on February 17th. Lest we fall prey to the Minotaur of the Met—that fatal urge to cram all 2.2 million square feet into a single Saturday afternoon, to which we have all fallen sacrificial victim at one point or other—I propose a second trip, soon after the first. Two trips will also allow us to visit the gift shop twice, whether we want to practice restraint or excess in our plundering.

For tickets, times, and directions, visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art website: metmuseum.org.

I suspect that we will both be quite exhausted after two consecutive trips to the Met. Personally, I plan on recuperating at one of this city’s several botanical gardens. If I am not thrown into a catatonic depression by the grey sameness of the city on any given winter’s day, I may even go to two!

Now, I have failed to attend the New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show this year—quelle surprise.

So, naturally, there is a strong case for my going to see those charming wooden miniatures, and that teensy MetroNorth, before they put the train tracks away on January 20th. That said, if I’ve seen “The Great Borough Bake-Off” then I can probably afford to prioritize something other than a festive miniature… Brooklyn & Queens it is!

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden advertises a host of classes, tours, and courses this time of year, so perhaps I will learn to identify trees or perfect my plant propagation techniques! Additionally, on the 24th & 25th of January the garden will be celebrating the Lunar New Year with Walk & Talks through the conservatory. Meanwhile, the Queens Botanical Garden’s Lunar New Year festivities on February 8th will feature a lion dance performance, crafts, and more. Lektrik: A Festival of Lights is also on at QBG, though it remains open through March.

For tickets, times, and directions, please consult the gardens’ websites: nybg. org, bbg.org, queensbotanical.org.

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"Lest we fall prey to the Minotaur of the Met—that fatal urge to cram all 2.2 million square feet into a single Saturday afternoon—I propose a second trip."

Last but certainly not least, my personal favorite: The Neue Galerie.

The permanent collection, including Klimt’s famously gilded portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer and the most darling Deco tableware, is always worth a trip up the marble staircase. But right now—and only through January 13th—the Galerie is showing Egon Schiele: Living Landscapes.

If you’ve only seen Schiele’s contorted portraits, the agony of which I admit I adore, you do not know the full scope of his artistic genius. Schiele’s landscapes are stark, vivid, lovely, cruel— there’s something so terribly human in their unhumanity. When last I visited Vienna, I proved myself quite the standard American tourist by weeping before Klimt’s infamous kiss. But as soon as I had dried my eyes, I found myself once more a watering pot— thanks to a cluster of leafless trees, rendered most existentially. Ardent admirer that I am of Egon Schiele, I simply must visit the Neue Galerie before they send the loaned landscapes home on January 13th.

For tickets, times, and directions, visit the Neue Galerie website: neuegalerie.org.

Wish me luck as I try to visit as many of the above exhibitions as I can, now that the holiday crowds are starting to clear. In return, I wish you a year full of art, even at the cost of clean laundry.

January 2025, Page 7

Drinking with Katherine: Sophies

by Katherine Rivard

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hortly after I had been offered my own column (Drinking with Katherine) in this newspaper, I told some of my friends and family about it. Punctuation was lacking in their replies, as it often is via text, but enthusiasm was not: “Oh my god Katherine that’s perfect,” “THIS IS AMAZING NEWS,” and simply “10000000%.” My mother was also supportive, though her interpretation of Drinking with Katherine did not completely align with my own: “That’s great! It’s about hydration.” Ultimately, though, her guess as to what my column’s focus would be was as good as mine.

And so, I began to rummage for inspiration. Always a diligent student, I began my research on potential angles for the column by Googling “famous columns,” only to find myself staring at images of the Marcus Aurelius Col-

umn in Rome and Venice’s Column of St. Theodore. Even after tailoring my search, the articles I found failed to inspire. Besides requesting that each article feature a bar in lower Manhattan and suggesting a bar to start with (Sophie’s on East 5th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B), my editor left me with no further directions. The only follow-up emails I received from him were reminders about the looming deadline and requests to join his Rotary club in its upcoming volunteer events. I couldn’t help but wonder: what did readers really want to learn about lower Manhattan’s bar scene?

Sophie’s stands out in the East Village as a neighborhood bar—the type of place you can feel comfortable in no matter your age (as long as you’re over 21) or your budget (a single beer can be as little as $5). It’s dimly lit, the menu is written in chalk, cash is

Theater for the New City JANUARY EVENTS

THE PRIOR 55

by Andrea J. Fulton DECEMBER 19- JANUARY 5 THURS. to SAT. @8PM, SUN @3PM

strongly preferred (there’s a $20 credit card minimum), and they have beer and shot combos; and yet, it’s not quite a dive bar considering just how cozy and well-cared for it remains.

As an urban planner moonlighting as a writer, I dug into the history of the bar and its layout. The bar counter itself is smooth from years of patrons’ forearms resting on it, and it is connected to the liquor shelves behind it–the bar equivalent of a builtin bookcase–which gives it a vaguely “old Europe” appearance. Everyone from Grub Street to Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York and, probably most famously, Anthony Bourdain has featured Sophie’s over the years. According to their reports, the bar was originally owned by a Ukrainian woman named Sophie Polny. She opened her original establishment around 1914 on Avenue A, then moved it (and its elaborate wooden bar) to its current location. Today, it’s owned, along with Josie’s and Mona’s, by two business partners. Alongside liquor and cocktails, beer options at Sophie’s range from Pabst to Guiness in mug, pint, or pitcher sizes, as well as a range of bottles and cans like Miller High Life ($5) and Dogfish Head ($8). There is no food.

It’s impressive for any business to stick around for decades in NYC, but on further reflection, the bar’s histoA SHIFT OF OPINION ry and layout are not what set it apart.

Sophie’s is so pleasant and easy to

by Vadim Astrakhan DECEMBER 19- JANUARY 5 spend time in because of its rotating cast of cross-generational patrons.

THURS. to SAT. @8PM, Patrons are lured in by multiple seatSUN @3PM ing options (the bar and plenty of tables), music (thanks to a CD jukeTHE JESSYCKA ROSE TALK SHOW box) that’s never too loud, and a pool

by Terry Lee King table that’s almost always in use. On DECEMBER 19- JANUARY 5 a recent Monday evening, a whitehaired woman brought her own bilTHURS. to SAT. @8PM, liards cue—she played with strangers SUN @3PM 50th ANNUAL THUNDERBIRD while her husband sat at the bar enjoying his drink. Later a group of NYU AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS’ students dressed as though they’d just POW-WOW AND DANCE CONCERT stepped out of the ‘90s played a game, JANUARY 10- JANUARY 19 and a couple sat side by side at a table, the woman’s legs both draped over FRI. & SAT. @8PM, her partner’s thigh.

SAT & SUN @3PM

THE GIGGLING GRANNY

by Marsha Lee Sheiness JANUARY 9- JANUARY 26 THURS. to SAT. @8PM, SUN @3PM

THE SHINE CHALLENGE 2025

by Ishmael Reed JANUARY 30- FEBRUARY 16 THURS. to SAT. @8PM, SUN @3PM

SHELLEY & LOVELACE NEVER MET

by Becky McKercher & Sarah Thuswaldner JANUARY 30- FEBRUARY 16 THURS. to SAT. @8PM, SUN @3PM

To buy tickets call (212) 254-1109 or visit theaterforthenewcity.net Page 8 Village Star-Revue

Despite the occasional cad (does not ugliness let us see beauty more clearly?), and its proximity to the adolescent-filled bars surrounding Tompkins Square Park, Sophie’s is a perfect spot to sit alone or to start up a conversation with a stranger. As an extrovert, I have always loved meeting people. On rare occasions, I learn all too quickly that the person and I would have both preferred silence, but in the moments before making any introduction, the air of mystery around strangers feels like potential—potential to find a new friend, a lover (back in my single days), or just an incredible story. Still, it’s not always so easy to start a conversation with a stranger.

On a Friday after work, the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and with the help of a Kona Big Wave pint (or two), I met a pair of friends catch-

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Katherine Rivard

ing up before dinner nearby; a chef from Brooklyn stopping for a game of pool before a jazz performance at Small’s; a sportscaster enjoying a post-work beer after reading a post about Sophie’s on Instagram; and a Westchester native who now lives in Colombia and was only visiting long enough to renew his visa. Through our conversations I discussed potential hors d’oeuvres for one of their New Year’s Eve parties, the challenges NYC students face to secure a spot in the city’s elite schools, and one man’s hip operation in Argentina (apparent-

"Sophie’s is a perfect spot to sit alone or to start up a conversation with a stranger. " ly a necessity, given the astronomical cost of healthcare and procedures in the United States). That’s when it struck me—this column would be about what makes each of the bars I visit special, and how that informs the people who spend their time there.

For most bar patrons, bars aren’t about drinking and getting drunk. They’re about leaving one’s private space to be a bit closer to their fellow man, even if that just means the bartender. At a time when we’re still recovering from the pandemic in some ways and when politics are more divisive than ever, bars are places where a drink and a new perspective, in the form of a stranger’s opinions or what’s on their mind, can help us feel a bit more connected. Next time you’re feeling down—whether it’s a bad day or just the news—I recommend making a visit to someplace like Sophie’s, where you could meet someone from almost any stage of life, and chatting up a stranger, even if it’s just about whether or not they will have enough pigs in a blanket for their upcoming party.

Have an idea for a future bar to feature? Send your recommendations to katherine.rivard1@gmail.com.

January 2025

Inspired to Inspire: The Art of Calicho Arevala

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by Stephen DiLauro

alicho Arevala came to New York City from his native Colombia several years ago to work as an architect. “I did a variety of jobs as an architect. Project manager and so forth,” he says. Architect was an excellent day job. However, inspired by the energy and possibilities of New York, he soon commenced adventures in the art world.

noted efforts since his arrival. He did a total of eight murals featuring the bird. These ephemeral pieces helped initiate an effort to make windows in the city “crash proof” for birds. Flaco died when he slammed into a window while flying. More and more, since Flaco’s death, the planes of glass windowpanes are being adorned with dots that warn birds visually that glass is a barrier, not a portal.

“A door is always a door, and a window is always a window. That’s architecture. It’s not going to change all that much.” Arevala says. “I believe my art has the potential to make more of an impact. My focus is to make art with a message.” He also hopes to become a point of reference for other artists of his generation.

That was one of Arevala’s goals when he did Flaco murals. “I suppose you can say something good came out of what happened to Flaco,” he says with a shrug. Then he adds, “The murals were street art. They didn’t last very long before someone painted over them. That’s the nature of street art.”

Of the eight murals, the one in Freeman Alley on the Lower East Side survived the longest – more than a month.

He chose street art to amplify his impact. He cites the amazing Ron English as his main inspiration in this endeavor.

It was Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, that led to some of Arevala’s most

At his suggestion, we met in late December at Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street in the Village, to discuss his various endeavors. The extravagant-

ly mustachioed Calicho showed up wearing (shades of Robert Motherwell) white pants with black marks like runes. They are part of the MLC brand – a “slow fashion” line of repurposed clothing that is painted by artists and sold under the Coco Redux label.

I was lucky to be invited to the Halloween fashion show of Calicho’s stylish pieces in the Oculus at the World Trade Center. It was an exciting debut of pieces from lingerie to dresses to various accoutrements. He recruited some beautiful models who helped make the evening memorable. Lee Klein, art critic for the Village Star-Revue who knows far more about fashion than I do, and who attended the event with me, declared it an absolute success.

tive state as he chooses his next projects, which he expects to announce and begin in February. Calicho Arevala’s paintings and drawings are often included in group shows in SoHo, Tribeca, the Lower East Side and elsewhere. His first one man show here was at One Art Space in Tribeca. You can sign up for his email list on his website, calichoart.com and stay up to date on all his efforts.

Christened Carlos Arevala when he was born thirty-five years ago in Bogota, Colombia, his grandmother came up with the nickname Calicho.

“It really doesn’t have a meaning. She made it up and it stuck.”

Currently, the artist is in a cogita-

1980's street art morphs into today's Downtown Uptown show

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n the beating heart of Harlem, Ilon Gallery’s grand brownstone is bursting at the seams with artistic exuberance as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary with the vibrant exhibition eponymously titled “10”. This far-ranging showcase brings together an eclectic mix of painters, photographers, sculptors, cartoonists, AI and mixed-media artists from the gallery’s stable, deftly curated to create a visually stunning and memory lane-traversing experience.

Upon entering the gallery, visitors are immediately struck by Edwina Sandys’ “Bitten Green Apple,” an exquisite piece featuring black lacquered hands holding a bitten green apple (the aforementioned title of which might have you hearing JayZ rapping “don’t bite the apple Eve” on the soundtrack of your mind) in front of a stately yet curvaceous carved wood-framed mirror. This work sets the tone for an exhibition that seeks to introduce new entries from downtown’s jagged edge into Harlem’s cauldron of artistic output simmering on a stove of scores of years of storied avant-garde tradition.

Village Star-Revue

by Lee Klein One of the exhibition’s standout features is the dynamic chromatic duality of Ellen Sandor’s electronic “Solar Dynamo / Solar Interior” (2016), which bursts forth with gold on the video screen, adjacent to Arnold Brooks’ dramatic black and smoky white acrylic canvas “Untitled 2024.”

Together, these two works form an ad hoc diptych of black and gold, evoking the opulent palette of Gustave Klimt.

The exhibition also gives great measure to the work of notable artists from the 1980s street art scene, including Christopher Hart Chambers, Rick Prol, Ken Hirastuka, Scot Borofsky, and Shalom Tomas Neuman, all of whose work has evolved and morphed over the ensuing decades.

Chambers’ current series, characterized by lush growth and deep, elegant layering, is particularly noteworthy.

Meanwhile the works of idiosyncratic artworld figures like writer-turnedcartoonist Anthony Haden-Guest and the king of abstract-expressionist portraiture Barnaby Ruhe’s also grace the walls.

Loni Efron’s curation is astute, with

a hawk’s eye for juxtaposing works to create unexpected dialogues. Phyllis Galembo’s photograph of Indigenous South Americans, “Two Men Carrying a Sick Baby to the Hospital,” is paired with Chambers’ “Untitled,” creating a visual conversation between among other things, shades of blue.

The exhibition is also a testament to Efron’s background in photography archiving and curation, with works by giants of the medium, such as Lynn Gilbert’s iconic portrait of Julia Child (1977). This work, which captures the famed chef and television personality in a state of active thinking and movement, is a precursor to the work of Annie Leibovitz, who would later further pull the personalities of noted figures into articulated motion.

“Downtown Uptown” is a transplanted joy, a celebration of artistic diversity that brings together some of the best of downtown’s creative legions and uptown’s reflective poise.

Edwina Sandys’ “Bitten Green Apple.

Downtown Uptown “10’” Anniversary Show. Through February 13, 2025, Ilon Gallery, 204 West 123rd Street in Harlem

www.villagestar-revue.com

January 2025, Page 9

Pandemic diary filmed from Horatio Street

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ecently my friend and neighborhood-preservation hero Zack Weinstine of www.savegansevoortnyc. org shared a link to a feature-length documentary I didn’t know he had made. It’s called “Strange Days Diary NYC” and it’s his chronicle of year one of the covid pandemic, most of it shot around the far West Village, where, like Zack and his wife, my husband and I have lived for decades.

I have always dreamed about being plunked in Manhattan in the past and getting to wander around to my heart’s content. While 2020 is hardly the time-travel destination I would have chosen, watching the movie comes weirdly close to fulfilling my fantasy. It’s rare I’ve felt so fully immersed in the sights, sounds and alien habits of another era (albeit one we all lived through very recently).

“Strange Days Diary” couldn’t be more unassuming, but Zack is a professional filmmaker, so it’s also beautifully shot—much of it from his fourth-floor apartment at Washington and Horatio Streets—and tightly edited. Zack was quicker than many to anticipate what was about to hit us. In March, the neighborhood is packed, no masks in sight. Then everything closes: stores, restaurants, the High Line. Traffic disappears. The birds sing arias. The sidewalks become the domain of kids on wheels, weary parents trotting along. A guy does pushups in front of the shuttered Whitney, another jogs in small circles on a roof deck. The wealthy pack up their SUVs and head to the country. Moving vans swoop in.

For Zack’s previous feature-length documentary, the weird and wonderful “Caravan/Prague: The Uneasy Road to Change,” about an anarchist group biking across Germany on their way to a protest in Prague, he recorded a voiceover. But here he limits himself to terse, often witty title cards. One card laments the shift from light manufacturing in the Gansevoort Meat Market to luxury-brand stores. For a clip of a press conference about the virus in which Trump keeps

Page 10 Village Star-Revue

by Michele Herman

veering off topic to praise Fox News and his own brilliance, Zack’s commentary is simply “It is not reassuring.” When Zack pans his small apartment, stockpiled with groceries, the title reads: “My wife doesn’t like to be photographed, but she has a generous soul and puts up with me.”

My favorite silent set piece, shot from above, stars a FedEx guy loading his cart on the street. I’m on the edge of my seat as he keeps returning to his truck and piling more cartons of Bounty and Chewy on top, and then struggles to get the mountainous cart up the curb cut to the sidewalk.

While Zack held his cabin fever at bay

response. March 12: one local death and 52 nationwide. A month later: 9,000 dead in New York and 18,000 total. Gradually the death toll in the city levels off while the national numbers soar. May 30: 22,000 out of 100,000. In July: 23,400 out of 145,500.

The mash of undifferentiated days actually breaks down into distinct phases, starting with the arc from Monday March 9, when life was still more-orless normal, to that Friday, when it was a five-alarm fire. A glimpse of a mail carrier brings back that uneasy period when the mail stopped coming. A clip of Zack’s Zoom seder, and our own awkward, lonely experiences rush in. I see a line outside Trader Joe’s and remember how we all feared our own hands and cereal boxes. And then the ritual pot banging at 7 pm to honor the essential workers, a small but kind and communal gesture.

In May, the mood changes. Zack’s focus widens to West Street, various avenues and Foley Square, where he joins the protests, filming citizens with energy and fury to spare hoisting their slogans: No one is above the law. Congress has a right to subpoena Trump’s financial records. Then George Floyd is murdered in Minnesota: Say their names. Take your knee off his neck. A New York Times headline flashes onscreen: Spreading Unrest Leaves a Nation on Edge.

by filming, I was two blocks south managing mine with words, often about the same subjects. One morning, I watched, puzzled, as workers madly boarded up all the Meat Market boutiques. I came home and wrote a poem called “The Day of the Plywood.” Zack’s footage captures that day but also what I had missed the night before: the window-smashing and looting of Warby Parker and Christian Louboutin.

Zack punctuates the movie with regular updates of the death rate for the city and the U.S. Those diverging numbers tell their own story about the pandemic’s path and New York’s

The movie dispenses quickly with the election and wraps just after the January insurrection on the capitol. I asked Zack whether he ran out of storytelling steam or whether he was just too fed up with the world to keep going.

“The abnormal becomes routine,” he replied. “However strange things were and how terrible the circumstances, you fall into new routines. It started to feel repetitive.”

I asked him why he chose not to do a voiceover, because I know how hard he worked to create the one for “Caravan/Prague.” He said that the title cards started as placeholders. But when he did record himself, he said, “it threw the visuals and sound out of balance. It enabled you to tune

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The movie works because it recreates not just the fear and tragedy of 2020, but the quiet and isolation. out the visuals while waiting for the voiceover. I recut it and decided not to go there.”

I agree entirely. The movie works because it recreates not just the fear and tragedy of 2020, but the quiet and isolation. It also works because of the dramatic irony, a theater term for when the audience knows something the characters don’t. Zack the filmmaker had no idea where we were all headed; none of us did. But we know now. As absurd as this will sound, I found myself falling into the cliché about lost innocence: we had no idea what was soon to erupt in Ukraine and Gaza; the Fox News fanatic hadn’t yet been reelected.

Because the movie compresses a year into 82 minutes, I also felt unusually aware of the planet quietly spinning around the sun. How wild and startling the seasonal cycles of birth and dieback, wet and dry; how gorgeous the protean, health-giving beings we call trees. When Zack’s camera came to rest on a profusion of red tree-pit tulips, I almost cried, so bright and buoyant they were, always a sign of hope and renewal in New York City, right?

Stream “Strange Days Diary NYC” free on Fawesome https:// fawesome.tv/movies/10634695/.

No registration needed. www. strangedaysdiary.com, facebook. com/StrangeDaysDiary

January 2025

FILM: Documentary “Veselka” Celebrates Food, Community, and the Unbreakable Ukrainian Spirit

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bout 35 minutes into Michael Fiore’s documentary Veselka: The Rainbow On the Corner at the Center of the World, Ukrainian members of the restaurant staff hustle to get food to customers. As they do, they talk about their boss, Veselka owner Jason Buchard, and his ability to communicate in their language. When Fiore asks one of them, Dima, for an interview, he says, “No. Thank you. I’m not in the mood.” Fiore says he understands, it’s busy. “I’m not busy,” Dima replies.

“The first nine days (of the war), I lost nine friends.”

by Dante Ciampiaglia

history, how he hopes the film can impact the ongoing conversation about America’s support for Ukraine, and the film’s brief but infamous appearance by Mayor Eric Adams. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why make a documentary about Veselka?

When the pandemic happened, a lot of my production work dried up and I was desperately looking for something controlled to be able to work on.

I’d never met Tom or Jason, but we

It’s 11 days into the war in Ukraine, and what was to this point a film about a family business and local institution suddenly becomes something much different: a powerful document of a year in the life of a community 5,000 miles from — but very much at the center of — the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II. Veselka originally debuted in February at the Santa Barbara Film Festival before screening around the country. It’s now available on Apple TV+ and other streaming services, as well as Blu-Ray. Narrated by David Duchovny with a soundtrack featuring saxophonist David Sanborn — one of the last things he did before he died in May at 78 — the film began as a more Ken Burnslike documentary about the Village institution. Opened in 1954 by Ukrainian refugee Wolodymyr Darmochwa as a candy store and gathering point for other displaced Ukrainians, Veselka grew into a restaurant and a Village staple as Wolodymyr’s son-in-law Tom Birchard took over the business, followed by Tom’s son Jason.

Fiore says Veselka was originally conceived as a film examining the history and family and community dynamics that shaped, and continue to shape, Veselka. But then Russia invaded Ukraine, and it became a very different film. Tom and Jason’s story needed to coexist alongside those of Dima and Vitalii, another long-time employee and native Ukrainian, who both struggle with being so far from home, the toll the war has taken on their families, and getting their loved ones out of the country. The more straightforward documentary Fiore envisioned suddenly became more visceral and urgent.

The director spoke with the Star-Revue about having a front-row seat to

Village Star-Revue

had colleagues in common and I got this introduction in November 2021.

I knew the back-of-the menu story of it being owned by three generations, but I wanted a better understanding of it, to get a sense of who they were and to figure out if there was an angle there. Soon after our meeting, I pitched them an idea where the core idea was family, fathers and sons, and community through good times and bad, and how the power of food brings people together. It was going to dissect the neighborhood even more, and probably be even more Ken Burns-y, in a way.

They sat on the idea for a few months, and then in January 2022, when the news started talking about people training in Ukraine to potentially fight in a war, I was, like, “Whoa, what’s go-

ing on?” I emailed them and said, you know, God forbid that war happens, but there might be parallels to explore by way of Wolodymyr becoming a refugee during World War Two and coming to New York and opening up the storefront. And they sat on that for a couple weeks, and then finally, a few days into the war, they said, “Okay, we feel comfortable with you, you can start filming. But be very delicate.”

This isn’t meant to be insensitive, but is the version of the film that resulted from the outbreak of the war better than the one you originally conceived?

I mean, look, I would trade the war never happening for the alternate version, without a doubt. But since it has occurred, it did give more resonance to the core themes of family and community coming together.

And you didn’t lose that core multi-generational idea. The relationship between Jason and Tom is still there, but you also have this maybe more interesting mirror in the way some of the Veselka staff bring their family to the U.S. from Ukraine.

Rather than the older generation handing the world over to their kids, it’s the younger generation rallying to protect their parents and grandparents.

I appreciate you recognizing that. I saw Vitalii and his mom’s story as a mirror of Wolodymyr coming here in the late 1940s. So in weighing and measuring the emphasis on the past versus the present, I made a very calculated choice that the movie not be about Wolodymyr. It’s really more about the now. He’s the cornerstone to the story, setting up Veselka. But then it’s more about Tom taking it over and the strains on him and his family through the decades for him to get it to where it is. And then it’s Jason learning from his father not being there to now being a father himself, in a way, to Vitalii and these other gentlemen, the way his dad was not with him. So to me, in telling that story of Vitalii and his mom, you’re really telling Wolodymyr’s story, too. You’re

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seeing in real time what these refugees in the ‘40s were going through.

This is a film about a restaurant and a business. Even with its history and storylines it has, how do you make this so it doesn’t feel like a commercial?

That was always something that I was really, really aware of. The way I avoided it was very consciously saying I wasn’t going to interview the public and get their feelings about the restaurant, I wasn’t going to show news clips talking about Veselka, and I wasn’t going to show all the Hollywood movies that have chosen to film in there. My goal with this movie is that you experience a moment in time with the people involved in the events in a way where you come off feeling like you’ve been with them for over 90 minutes. I don’t have to gild the lily if you’re just feeling the real and honest vibe of the space, the people, whatever’s going on.

The first bit of the film, prior to the war starting, where we get the history and a taste of the place, feels like it’s doing a lot of that important scene setting.

And by the way, that first act is completely different tonally. That was a very conscious decision, where it sets itself up to be that Ken Burns-like film where we go back in time with photos and imagery from the past and you’re establishing the different “characters.”

But then once the war starts and we’re really thrown into it by the end of Act One, you realize the severity of how this is impacting people like Vitalii and Dima. When Dima reveals to me that nine of his friends died in the first nine days of the war, you’re seeing in real time the evolution I had as a storyteller, where I realized, from there on, it has to be a different movie than what you just experienced. And that’s when Act Two and Three become completely cinéma vérité and we don’t really do a lot of looking back.

When Dima tells you about his friends, how did hearing that hit you?

If I recall correctly, I just told our camera operator, like, I motioned for them to tilt the cameras down and turn them off, and we basically wrapped for the day. At that point, we realized we can’t overstay our welcome on any day because of the severity of what this is. I didn’t know how long I was going to be there with them. Would this war be (continued on next page)

January 2025, Page 11

VESELKA

(continued from previous page)

over in two weeks? Would it be over in two months? No one could predict.

The sentiment towards the war was changing, and it was changing very quickly, and it was starting to become polarized in our country about support. So that’s when I said I need to get this movie done and out as quickly as possible, so that it was a symbol of support, so Ukrainians would see there’s a lot of people that still care and want to help.

We’re speaking roughly two months from the third anniversary of the war.

A lot can change in two months. But what role do you see this film playing now? Because it’s almost worse now, in this country, in terms of the conversation about supporting Ukraine.

It often seems like there is no conversation.

And from all the comments you’re hearing out of the next administration, they may pull back on funding, so there would be less support, at least from the government. The good news is, Veselka is continuing its support. They work with Razom and a bunch of other Ukraine-focused nonprofits to continue to give money. By the time the film was released, they had raised something like $650,000 in in-kind monies and goods. Since the movie came out theatrically almost a year ago, they’re up to almost a million dollars. My goal was always to tell a story that would allow people in Ukraine to know that there is this place they can call home in the United States, whether they want to visit or move out of Ukraine; that there is a community that’s been there for them for over 100 years and would welcome them in a heartbeat.

And, specifically, Veselka always will.

Did the film play in Ukraine?

We opened in Ukraine in six cinemas in four cities: Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, and Lviv. On the opening night in Kyiv, Vitalii’s dad went and he sent back a

COFFEE

(continued from page 1)

long. The other side is trying to play this as a game-ending tsunami, but it’s not. We lost the round but not the fight.

Here’s a quote I read this morning from John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania who went on the record saying democrats should,“Buckle up and pack a lunch, because it’s going to be four years of this.”

I have to admit I was extremely optimistic about the election. Having Kamala was great, a human to vote for instead of that vile fat slob riding a golf cart. However it turned out, after watching a candidate pretend to give a blow job to a microphone, 20,000 people filed out of the rally shouting “THATS OUR GUY!!!!”

R.J.- Haaa…..wait, not. One of the millennials EVER mentioned smoking.

Joe Ford- Yeah well.

R.J.- In a previous interview it was raised that boomers are “Too old to matter.” What’s your reaction to that.?

Joe Ford- I think that being a boomer,

Page 12 Village Star-Revue

photograph of roughly 50 people that had attended in front of the movie screen. As a storyteller, that moved me like you couldn’t believe. That was the core audience. And I was told that during the war, if you see 10 people total in any movie theater, that’s a lot. The fact that we had 50 people in just one screening was amazing.

As part of that Ukraine release, we wanted the baseball team to come to the opening. We wanted to celebrate them. Unbeknownst to me, the way they recruit or draft soldiers is by grabbing them right off the street. If you were a young male at a coffee shop, if somebody in the military saw you, they could grab you and throw you in the front lines. The baseball team didn’t feel comfortable going out to the movie theater because they were concerned that they would be a focus and be taken. So of the 50 people that were in the audience, two of them were baseball players. The majority were 12-year-old kids from a youth baseball league. My hope is that those kids in that audience saw this and felt, Oh, there’s a place in the United States that really does care for me and the Ukrainian people.

In terms of the domestic audience, you mentioned before our conversation that the film is in the top 10 on Apple TV+. How do you leverage that visibility and popularity so the film has a voice in the ongoing debate about the U.S. and its influence in the war?

One thing I want to avoid is making the movie feel like it’s too local. Even though this story takes place in a New York restaurant, there’s so many universal themes of paying it forward, staying connected to your community, and just helping your community through good times and bad. We cite multiple times where Veselka over the decades, from 9/11 to Superstorm Sandy and now the war, has just always been there, no matter what, for the local community and now beyond to Ukraine. That’s the important message here that goes beyond even this war. We could all be the rainbow on a person of this generation, there’s a certain productivity that was expected. There was an America that was on the rise. A lot of things were not told to us that we had to find out for ourselves. In 1968 when we started seeing the fire hoses and the Pettit Bridge we began to realize how insulated those of us in the white middle class were, and how tough it was for others. So, our cavalier attitude hadn’t been confronted with defeat.

Then I started seeing older guys on the block going off to Vietnam and coming back quite changed. I just missed getting drafted but Vietnam affected all of us. The Millennials have never been exposed to the horrors of war so it’s really easy to talk big and get radicalized. Saying stuff like “Well I’m a Libertarian and the government is spending too much money defending Ukraine. And in the South China Sea, we should reconsider our imperialist tendencies.”

I think some of today’s issues can be summed up in the words of the scientist Neil Degrasse Tyson who says: “The problem in this world is that too many people know enough to think

the corner at the center of the world.

We can all do our part to pay it forward and give back to people, to make not only our local communities stronger but the country a stronger place.

Not to get too local, but there is a moment in the film that will have particular resonance for New Yorkers now, and that’s the scene where Mayor Eric Adams is at Veselka meeting with Jason and Tom and official representatives of Ukraine.

The funny thing is, nobody likes that man. The film screened at the New Plaza where it’s a very liberal audience, and they just would boo him, I think you capture the thing people dislike about him the most, which is that here he is, sitting across the table from the Ukrainian consul who is telling the mayor all these awful stories about the experience on the ground, the realities in the country—and Adams is giving thumbs up, smiling and mugging for the cameras outside the windows. It’s like he’s not even in the same universe as the others at that table.

They were treating that appearance as a duality, where they were covering both the end of the mask mandate and also talking to Ukraine’s consul general. Adams had no focus. He was bouncing around all these different ideas. If I had put in more of what we had, that appearance would have been like an unelection committee. He looked even worse. Not that I was trying to make him look good, but it was like I was beating a dead horse after a while. Okay, we get it, it’s more about him and not about the situation at hand. In that moment, I couldn’t believe it. The mayor knew our cameras were there. He had our microphone on him. Our cameras were four feet from his face. His team had approved everything. It’s not like we ambushed him.

This is who he is.

I always say that the storytelling gods sometimes grant you everything. And in this movie, I had a few of those beau-

they’re right, but not enough to know they’re wrong.”

R.J.- Ok…..how’s the coffee here btw?

tiful, well-timed moments. And in the case of Mayor Adams, it made me realize what the story was on the second day of filming. I realized, and I say it by way of Tom and Jason in that sequence at the start of Act Two, that Jason was going to have to now be the local leader for Ukraine. It became very apparent in that moment, and it really sets Jason and the audience off on this path, this new journey, by way of seeing that the mayor wasn’t fully listening and fully supportive in that moment.

What tips that moment over into almost tragedy is Adams’ fundamental unseriousness. It plays like a microcosm of the experience people are having everywhere — Ukrainians trying to explain just how horrible the situation is, and the people and leaders they’re trying to reach just aren’t listening.

That’s exactly right. And, again, on a more universal level, it’s a reminder to all of us that we can’t look to our local or national officials, no matter what party we’re a part of, to be the “leaders.” It really needs to go back where we care about our little, intimate community, whether we live in a big neighborhood in Manhattan or a small town in the middle of Texas.

We need to care more about what’s in our periphery and what’s in front of us and raise people up. It’s a virtuous cycle. In the case of Jason and Tom and Veselka, they feed the community and the community feeds them back.

It’s a mutual feeding. And people recognize one another’s importance in this ecosystem, that the community is there as much for Tom and Jason and the restaurant as Tom and Jason is there for the community.

Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World is now streaming on Apple TV+ and other major services, and it’s available as a Blu-Ray. Visit veselkamovie.com for more information. Trailer here: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=-nOYF8vYYtE

You can check out JOE FORD’s recording and production work @(SouthBrooklynSound.com/listen)

Joe Ford- (taking a sip) A little weak.

CROSS POLLINATION Opening: Sunday, January 12th A reception will be held from noon - 4 Robin Feld: Buried Line, Calmer Vista, oil on canvas

January 2025 Cross Pollination: An Exchange of Ideas, Art at First NYC brings together the work of visual artists, most are members of Art Lives Here and the New York Artist Circle, curated by Connie Lee, Beth Barry and Barbara Sherman

The First Presbyterian Church, 12 West 12th Street

www.villagestar-revue.com

January 2025

From left to right: Sean Kershaw, Drip 2.0, the Supertones

MUSIC: Trump's is not the only new residency

by Medea Hoar

H

appy New Year and welcome to the 1st column of 2025 for Tits Up Big Apple!! While December maybe a time to reflect on the past year’s adventures, January brings us new exploits, new music, along with the best NYC has to offer when it comes to residencies and tried and true traditions.

What is it?

What is a residency, you inquire? Generally speaking, it’s when a musician or band has a consistent weekly/monthly gig at the same locale. However, on the isle of Manhattan there is a residency that defies definition and time – that would be Unsteady Freddie’s Surf-Rock Shindigs held each and every first Saturday night of the month for over 20 years at Otto’s Shrunken Head Tiki Bar! One of the very first surf combos to play at the very first SurfRock Shindig in May of 2004 was none other than The Supertones, a 4-piece powerhouse that has been satisfying hodads and betties with a love of soaking wet reverb for decades. So I guess it’s no coincidence that for the first

Surf-Shindig of the Year and Birthday one at that, the Unsteady man about town has brought them back to open up year 21 (hey, I guess that makes them of legal age to drink) along with the Tarantinos NYC and Drip 2.0 for what is expected to be big, gnarly, kick ass wave of a line up on January 4th to celebrate at Unsteady Freddie’s big ole birthday bash. The bands hit the stage at 8 pm for your dancing and listening pleasure. You might even get lei’d.

Another New York City tradition in January is the beloved HankO-Rama show, this year being the 21st anniversary show celebrating the life of Hank Williams Sr. on the anniversary of his untimely demise on January 1, 1953. As in previous years, this celebration of life takes place at the Bowery Electric at 7 pm on January 1st. By the time you see this, gentle reader, that date may have passed but it’ll come around again next year so put your calendar because it’s not to be missed! The Lonesome Prairie Dogs welcome a multitude of talented folk to share the stage with them for Hank-o-rama each year,

including Lonesome Horns, Lenny Kaye, Tammy Faye Starlite, Stephanie Marie, Jack Grace, Ellie Goodman, Monica Passim, Elena Skye, Boo Reiners, John S. Hall, Cliff Westfall and Sean Kershaw! Oh, my stars and black lace garters, I’m gonna have a helluva good time, which I will share with you in February’s column.

And speaking of February, the infamous Sean Kershaw has his own kicky-poo annual event in February 2025! It’s the second annual Johnny Cash Birthday Tribute at the Bowery Electric on Saturday Feb. 15, 2025 at 7 pm. This show has a phenomenal line up of performers including Eli “Paperboy” Reed who graced the stage last year and Binky Griptite, guitarist for the late Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, record producer and radio DJ. You can occasionally catch Binky Griptite playing Sunday night gigs at the Bitter End on Bleeker.

Sean Kershaw is no stranger (at least no stranger than yours truly) to putting on stellar shows and bringing the best talent to the stage for all to enjoy.

Sean is known as the “face of Brook-

lyn country music”, via a Village Voice cover in 2008. But his Brooklyn adventures began long before that. Some of you, gentle readers, may recall early in this century when he made his home at the quintessential Brooklyn dive known as Hank’s Saloon and his hosting of the delightfully delicious Honkytonk Brunch. Ah, those were the days, the fuzzy, PBR and Bloody Mary soaked Sundaze…..No doubt some of the same Hank’s crew with be sharing the stage with Mr. Kershaw for the Johnny Cash Birthday Tribute at the Bowery Electric on Saturday Feb. 15, 2025 at 7 pm. As an added treat, one lucky guy or gal will have a chance to sing Folsom Prison Blues with the band! Raffle tix available at the show.

And speaking of tix, get yours early as this show will sell out!

With that, I leave you, my lovelies. May the new year bring you all that you desire, may your dreams become reality and with each passing day know that I hold space in my heart for all of you.

Till we meet again, I shall remain your wordsmith muse, Medea Hoar.

Time for a New Year's Pow Wow

by Jonathan Slaff

Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Avenue, will present its 50th annual Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert from January 10 to 19. There will be dances, stories and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The event has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity by honoring the culture of our first Americans. TNC donates all proceeds from the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students A Pow-Wow is more than just a spectator event: it is a joyous reunion for native peoples nationwide and an opportunity for the non-Indian community to voyage into the philosophy and beauty of Native culture. Traditionally a gathering and sharing of events, Pow-Wows have come to include spectacular dance competitions, exhibitions, and enjoyment of traditional foods.

Throughout the performance, all ele-

Village Star-Revue

ments are explained in depth through detailed introductions by the troupe’s Director and Emcee Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago). An educator, Mofsie plays an important part in the event by his ability to present a comprehensive view of native culture. He was awarded a 2019 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. In 2017, he was honored, along with Garth Fagan and Martha Myers, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Dance Guild.

The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American dance company in New York State. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten Native American men and women, all New Yorkers, who were descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas Kuna tribes. The Thunderbird-TNC collaboration began in 1975, when Crystal Field directed a play called “The Only Good Indian.” For research, Ms. Field lived on a Hopi reservation for three weeks. In preparation for the project, she met Louis Mofsie, Artistic Di-

rector of the dance troupe and a representative of the American Indian Community House. Mofsie suggested a Pow Wow and dance concert to celebrate the winter solstice. Field, who is herself 1% native American, committed herself to bring this to fruition.

The event has continued annually to this day.

The troupe’s appearances benefit college scholarship funds for Native American students. The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Scholarship Fund receives its sole support from events like this concert (it receives no government or corporate contributions), and has bestowed over 350 scholarships to-date. Theater for the New City has been presenting Pow-Wows annually as a two-week event since 1976, with the box office donated to these scholarships.

Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Avenue (at Tenth Street). Performances are January 10-19, Fridays at 8:00 PM; Saturdays at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tick-

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ets are $20 general admission. Matinees are kids’ days when children ages five to twelve accompanied by a ticketbearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $20). The TNC box office is 212254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net.

January 2025, Page 13

moment in the sun.

Perverts and the people who love them. On her debut album, 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain seemed to want to indulge in what she was trying to reject. Born and raised in Florida and christened (apparently) as Hayden Silas Anhedönia, Cain actually is the offspring of clergy

Sixth time around. The British funk band Cymande’s fame was momentary 50 years ago or so. They released three notable albums [their self-titled 1972 debut, followed by Second Time Round (1973) and Promised Heights (1974)] with less essential efforts in 1981 and 2015, toured with Al Green and Patti Labelle and headlined at the Apollo before calling it quits. Their grooves were later mined by the likes of De La Soul, EPMD, Fugees, Gang Starr, the KLF, Queen Latifah and the Wu-Tang Clan. More recently, the 2022 documentary Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande, while being a bit overly celebratory, traced their career, influence and reunion.

The fruits of that reunion (founding members Patrick Patterson and Steve Scipio, longtime members Adrian Reid and Raymond Simpson plus supporting players) are to be heard on the new Renascence (LP, CD, download available from BMG January 31). The album opens with a groove that would do Hot Chocolate proud, or could work as incidental music on an episode of Baretta—they step back firmly into that ’70s groove. “Chasing an Empty Dream” floats a vocal line of social commentary over thick bass, rich percussion and shining horns, building with smart orchestration. The rest of the album steps back a bit, not in meaning but in meter, with memorable melodies and midtempo messaging. That messaging is, beginning to end, simple, strong and straightforward. Cymande are exceptionally good at being convincing, especially on “Darkest Night,” which asks if progress is possible, or if it has even happened, with neither hope nor doom. That song is followed by “Carry the Word,” which closes the album like a lowkey, Neville Brothers anthem.

Will the sixth time be a charm for the London nonet? The grooves are in place and they’re touring the states, with a stop at Irving Plaza in NYC next month. Cymande deserves a second

Page 14 Village Star-Revue

When she sang “A life full of whiskey but I always deliver / Jesus, if You’re listening, let me handle my liquor / And Jesus, if You’re there /Why do I feel alone in this room with You?” she might have been trying to separate herself from the pack, but the country pop music and the cheerleader costume in the video suggested a desire to be in with the in crowd. There’s a lot of pain and personal politic in Cain’s songs. She was out as gay by the age of 12 and publicly as a trans woman at 20. She was later diagnosed as autistic. She doesn’t address such issues directly in her songs, but it’s there in her self-portraits of doubt and insecurity. Past songs have addressed Palestine and American gun culture, but she’s at her best when examining her own identity.

On Perverts (out Jan. 8 from Daughters of Cain as the follow-up to Preacher’s Daughter, which gets its first vinyl release Jan. 17), Cain seems intent on separating herself not just from the pack but from her former self and aspirations The album starts boldly with a brief hymn (“Nearer, My God to Thee”), sung a cappella with tape warble, which cuts off abruptly, leaving a disquieting hiss with occasional, distorted whispers. It’s like a found cassette that you know you shouldn’t be listening to and wish you could stop. That track goes on for 12 frightful minutes. It’s followed by a sad and beautiful, confessional ballad (“Punish”) with piano accompaniment and disembodied loops of sorrow. A wonderfully slow and eerie video in rich black-and-white with empty hallways and faceless bodies completes the picture. Other songs do lean closer to pop sensibilities, but they’re still slow and moody. Cain wrote, performed and produced all of Perverts and it’s a perfect piece of haunting introspection. It might scare you, but don’t let it scare you off.

Queer as (Good) Folksinger. Despite the typecasting of our polarized politics, the southern states aren’t and haven’t always altogether been, a conservative bastion. Comedians such as Nate Bargatze and Cliff Cash remind us of as much, and country music has long had liberal leaning representation. It’s not quite the progressive

front of outlaw cowboys and outspoken women it once was, but Willi Carlisle has been working to right the balance toward the left again. He’s outspoken too, but doesn’t force issues in his songs. He was born the son of a polkaman in Wichita, KS, but he’s no party lineman. He also holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Arkansas, but hell, the late and truly great Kris Kristofferson got his degree in English lit from Oxford. Ain’t no harm in being smart.

Carlisle champions abortion rights, gender and sexual fluidity and economic justice, but more than that delivers professional, unpolished Americana; the politics don’t overshadow the purity in the music. (He posted to the platform formerly known as “Twitter” in 2023 that he gets “sick of ‘queer folksinger’ being an advertisement for my work, and would much prefer ‘good folksinger,’ but you know what’s worse? That queer people friends get bullied and denied civil rights. So here we are.”) He has released three albums and a number of singles since 2016 and in December issued a solo session through Anti-Corp’s The Magnolia Sessions. (The album is streaming on most platforms with a limited edition LP benefitting Hurricane Helene relief out Jan. 31.) It’s a brisk set, 11 songs in under 30 minutes, including a particularly lovely rendering of the traditional blues “Careless Love” played on dulcimer. The politics come a bit more to the fore in a stirring banjo take on “Which Side Are You On?” and on “When the Roses Bloom Again,” a Woody Guthrie lyric set to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco for their album Mermaid Avenue Vol. III, performed here on banjo and harmonica.

But the highlight is a gentle rendition of the Shaker hymn “Love is Little” played on (I’m gonna guess) concertina like a lullaby for hard times. Carlisle sings in a sincere, unaffected voice against a casual, backyard ambiance replete with crickets. He’s a strong songwriter, but through his Magnolia Session, he shows that he can be a traditionalist as well, despite outside forces trying to dictate just what the traditions might, or should, be.

Big grrl energy. Brighton’s Lambrini Girls know how to cause a stir.

The English duo-plus-drummer first shook things up in 2022 with their single “Help Me, I’m Gay,” a direct confrontation of the male gaze. Another single followed in the first part of 2024, and then at the end of the year caused another small ruckus with “Big Dick Energy,” an attack striking deeper than

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the gaze. Like their spiritual grandmommies the Slits, they’re forcefully feminine, using allure as a force while exhibiting zero need for men.

It’s plenty fun to upset apple carts, but Lambrini Girls are tight and efficient.

Phoebe Lunny yells her way through crisp paragraphs of verses and keeps it catchy, and her guitar attacks are as pointed as the lyrics. Lilly Macieira’s bass is fast and grounded. Only three of the 11 songs on their first fulllength, Who Let the Dogs Out? (CD, LP and download out from City Slang Jan. 10) break the three-minute mark, but they manage smart invention and variation within their fast and fierce constructions. The album flies by in a furious and memorable half hour.

Treasures old and new. The folk metal band Nine Treasures arose from Inner Mongolia in 2010 and in the 15 years since have issued five hard-tofind albums of traditional song forms and strings (balalaika, morin khuur, tovshuur) with blast beats and proggy riffage. A new album is due out in 2025—their first in five years—but for the meantime, they’ve reissued two titles for streaming and download. The 2017 album Wisdom Eyes has been remastered for rerelease, and they’ve rerecorded the 12 tracks from the 2021 compilation Awakening From Dukkha. The latter is a vivid and visceral place to start: sea-faring songs and battle cries played with clean precision and scorching guitars, just in time for the Year of the Snake.

January 2025

Jazz by Grella

Being Here, Now

A

By George Grella

few miracles tossed in, would make him a Saint. The obits and eulogies are all about his character, personal history (which includes the kind of social and physical bravery that our political and corporate rulers run from) and political misfortunes. On the one hand, he had to give up his peanut farm when he took office, a quaint notion seen from our era of open corruption, and on the other he was undermined by treasonous subterfuge from Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. Against that anti-patriotism, he did one of the most American things ever from a President, hosting a White House Jazz Festival in 1978.

s a critic, I’m wary of addressing issues of taste.

Taste is personal, it’s what we like and what we don’t— I love how in Italian you say you like something with “mi piace,” which means “it pleases me”—and there’s very little taste-wise that is truly bad.

Bad taste, done with affection, is kitsch, which is a good thing. Criticism is about seeing something for what it is, what it says, and examining it on its own terms while also seeing how it fits into social, historical, aesthetic, ethical, and moral contexts. A good critic can take something that works on its own terms and express that, even if they don’t personally like it.

Writing critically about jazz starts with taste. For whatever personal reasons, when I first heard jazz I heard something that was absolutely joyous, beautiful, and exciting to me. The rhythmic concepts, the spontaneity of improvisation, the close listening and quick thinking inside an ensemble, these are the most delicious flavors to me. The critical side of me looks at my reactions and tries to understand and articulate what they mean.

Going over all that would make for several books. Cutting to the chase, and getting to the subject, means saying that what jazz means to me is the cultural greatness of America, and it is jazz and its American-ness that make me a citizen. And seeing jazz as the unique form it is, and how it came to be, means seeing how America itself came to be, not just culturally but politically, economically, and socially. Caring about jazz, and the blues that is its foundation, means knowing that Black Americans— brought here enslaved—have been fundamental to making this country what it is, despite this country doing everything it can to keep them from full rights of citizenship.

Jazz is part of the immense cultural power this country had in the 20th century. After World War II, American popular culture was a dominant force across the globe, and jazz is something that people all over the world loved about America, even as they were repulsed by our militarism, racism, and economic exploitation. More than any other factor it was culture that won the Cold War—it wasn’t the defense budget that brought down the Berlin Wall and disintegrated the Soviet Union, it was the desire people under totalitarianism had to wear Levis, dance to Michael Jackson, and drink Coke—and jazz was consequential in that, with the State Department (and

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Jimmy Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach at the White House Jazz ZFestival, June 18, 1978

yes, the CIA) sending out the likes of Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie on tours to show the world what was possible in America.

Possible, yes, actual, rarely. The idea that America wasn’t truly a democracy until the passage of the Civil Rights Act is indisputable. Sixty years later, we are at the edge, if not past it, of an oligarchical Neo-feudalism. Without a grand strategic conflict focussing politician’s priorities, cowardly reactionaries have run amuck, anarchists in all but name delivering favors to their rich patrons and grievances to the resentment addicts who make up a substantial portion of the public. The richest man in the world, an immigrant to this country, a vampire surrounded by eager Renfields, unsatisfied with his wealth, the leader of a party of puffed up, polished, self-regarding, mean-spirited amoralists and ignoramuses and the de facto next President, has decided to slather his dullness over everything. It’s not enough that he’s made his fortune off of taxpayers money—we’ve made him rich, folks!—now he needs to tell us what American culture is and who is an American and who isn’t.

And not just us! Shortly before the New Year, the German newspaper

Welt am Sonntag published an editorial from him—civic-minded of them to give space to the kind of voices the public doesn’t hear from enough— in which he called the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party the “last spark of hope” for that country, and that the party would create cultural integrity for Germany. In no way can I imagine that he’s thinking about Beethoven and Goethe. When he’s talking about the cultural integrity, he means preserving the political, social, and economic power of one specific racial and language group and keeping it away from people who have different skin colors and languages.

That’s not culture—it’s barely monoculture—it’s apartheid.

There are clearly many, many people who fervently desire this monoculture, and their passionate intensity in the context of this nation means that they absolutely hate America and everything it is. Monoculture is a not a matter of criticism, but a matter of taste, since it has only one flavor, and it is bland, dry, dull, and ultimately choking, like unseasoned chicken.

The same last weekend of 2024, we lost Jimmy Carter. Carter was a good man who did the kind of good works that, in another denomination and with a

"He had to give up his peanut farm when he took office, a quaint notion seen from our era of open corruption." www.villagestar-revue.com

Carter was a huge fan of American music of all kinds (as was Rosalyn Carter, who got the Library of Congress to expand their audio collection to include blues, gospel, and soul) because his America wasn’t the abstract worship of Revolutionary War political philosopher and the almighty dollar, but Americans themselves, how they lived and what they liked. What Carter liked and had taxpayers support (and good for him!) was Eubie Blake, Dexter Gordon, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and other titans.

Charles Mingus, at the end of his life and unable to play, was honored, and there is a deeply moving and beautiful photo of Jimmy and Rosalyn comforting Mingus, who was overcome with emotion. Two of the most important men in American history together in respect for each other and love for the possible is something that has been vanishingly rare, because it means looking beyond oneself. We have the artists who can do this, but it’s hard to see the politicians who can.

We do not have the politicians equal to our artists. Not being able to see past one’s own skin, to know that there are more kinds of people than you and more stories than yours, is a fundamental intellectual failure. It’s worse than stupid, it’s effortful ignorance. The monoculture they want is solipsistic, inbred, and decadent like the House of Habsburg. It isn’t in bad taste, it is tasteless, without flavor or color. It is anti-jazz, and so it is antiAmerican.

America is full of colors and flavors, that’s a strength. That strength won the Cold War, and jazz is part of that.

In the most ruthless power calculation, monoculture is weakness, and what our oligarchs want makes this country weak. Jazz is our strength, it’s part of 100 years of cultural greatness. Be American, live colorfully, listen to jazz.

January 2025, Page 15

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