Missing Foundation Hits OWS, As A T-shirt

These photos came from an OWS photo set from someone called Duke and Dutchess Creations. Anybody know who they are?

More t-shirt designs here.

Twitter Tweets Too Tricky

All day I tried to follow #Egypt on Twitter but was stymied. I use TweetDeck, and the column with the search was coming in so fast it was impossible to read, the tweets were literally zooming past. Then I tried a search on the Twitter home page, but it just hung and hung, never coming in, because I think it couldn't update the search fast enough.

Instead, I watched Al Jazeera's "Anger in Egypt" stream, which had great video, except the voices/talking heads were not describing what was on the video - the two were completely disconnected. So when they showed dozens of men carrying looted chairs and dressers down the street, or when they showed a man bleeding from the head after being hit by something, or a very young man unconscious, tended by medics, there was no description of what we were seeing.

My favorite tweet of the day was from The Onion: Tear Gas Manufacturers Fairly Pleased With Current Situation In Egypt.

Reward Offered - Please Help

I have been asked to spread the word that there is a reward for six suitcases stolen on Sunday night from the hallway of 529 E 12th Street. Two filmmakers were returning from a two month trip and in their bags were their laptops, a very expensive camera and their backup data (their life's work), among other things. They are working to get the video from the cameras outside the building to find out who has done this, but this will take a little bit of time, and in the meantime they are offering a generous reward for the return of at least the backup data which has no value to anybody but the filmmakers.

Ciao for Now has agreed to be the go-between for the return of the equipment. If the backup data is returned to Ciao for Now, there will be an immediate and generous cash reward.

Also, residents of the neighborhood are asked to look in the trash to see big bundles of clothing and empty silver cases as clues to identifying the thief.

In related news...

Chloe Sevigny to serve on Community Board 3's SLA committee? Can Scott Stringer get me a part on Big Love?

Meat thievery

After the husband was approached tonight by a man selling steaks from a truck, I wondered whether meat stealing was a common phenomenon. He told me that around 1983 he bought meat several times from the trunk of a car, or the back of a truck in the same place he saw the guy today. So, some things change, and some things never change.

In Kenner, Louisiana two couples were arrested after trying to sell stolen meat, about 7 months apart from each other in 2009. The first wild eyed couple were caught in April 2009 after stealing about $300 in steaks from Winn-Dixie by stuffing them into a purse. They were caught when trying to sell them at the Whistle Stop. The Winn-Dixie sleuth knew they were from his store because he recognized numbers on the package that proved they were his. I am impressed that Winn-Dixie workers were able to track their steak by serial number, and figure out which serial numbers were on the stolen steaks. That is a very organized person who commands a thorough tracking of inventory.

The second couple were caught in September when they got stopped for not wearing seatbelts. They had $1200 of stolen steaks and an oblong shaped pill in their stolen truck. They stole the meat from their former Kansas City, Missouri employer and drove it to, where else, but the capital of meat stealing, Kenner, Louisiana. I joke, but in fact New Orleans is a ripe area to sell hocked food, since huge swaths of the city are still lacking in some basic services such as access to fresh food. The couple's names are Lewis and Martin.

In 2008, a man was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Nebraska for stealing $9,000 worth of steaks from his former employer. He was a repeat offender, who has multiple sclerosis and chronic urinary retention which hindered his ability to provide a urine sample for prison drug testing during his first stint.

In December in Oklahoma, two men were caught after stealing t-bone steaks and other frozen delicacies from Windy's Catfish ("great food and even freater people"; and biker friendly.)

(P.S. I know the photo has no relation to this story but I couldn't find anything good in the meat category.)

I Have a Sign

Activism can be boring, it's the simple truth. You stand in front of something you don't like, or walk down a street, and shout, maybe chant. You make signs, hand out flyers, hope the media will show up, hope a politician will support your cause and turn it into something meaningful. It is a slow process that requires persistence and repetitiveness.

And then, there is breaking through the clutter. Pure genius.

Cocktail Chatter

This week, one of my favorite modes of getting news, Slate Magazine Daily Podcasts, has asked their listeners to recruit new listeners. Since I love this podcast series, and since I want them to succeed, this is my attempt to participate, and the chance to win fame and fortune in so doing.

Slate.com is an online news magazine owned by the Washington Post. It's a pretty good online read, but frankly I have little time for it. The podcasts, however, are another story. They gather three editors to discuss three topics and end with a recommendation from each of them about something interesting to read, do, see, think about. Each episode is about 30 minutes.

I get the podcasts from itunes, which automatically downloads the episodes every time I open it up and then it goes onto my ipod and I can listen at my leisure. The episodes are grouped into topics such as politics, culture, sports, finance and women's issues (sorry, their site is a mess and I couldn't find the link for this one but it's called Double X), and every now and then they do an hour long book club. Apparently they also have a weekly poetry podcast which is not included in my itunes daily downloads so I don't know if it's any good. Each series is produced separately, with different editors, and has a cute name like Political Gabfest, Hang Up and Listen (sports), Every Day I Read the Book (finance), Money Talks (also finance) etc. Each of these also have separate fan pages on Facebook, where further discussion can be found, if you are so inclined.

The editors are smart and funny, and present the news of the week in a lively discussion format. One of the Political Gabfest editors is John Dickerson who has the best twitter feed in the twitterverse.

The Slate podcasts are sponsored by audible.com and I suspect that this promotion to gain new listeners comes directly from audible's desire to see a growing audience to cement their continued sponsorship. They have, in all likelihood, scraped what they can in terms of new customers from the current listenership.

So if you give it a listen (either directly from their website, or you can sign up with itunes - it's free), please let me know. If you need help figuring out how to use a podcast, ask me, I listen to several different ones and love the medium.

Plus, if any good stories come out of this, I can enter to win a lunch with the gabfest hosts, which would be the best prize I could imagine and ultimately, my selfish reason for writing this post. So please post a comment or send me an email about your experience with slate podcasts and if I win, you can come with me to the lunch.

Rays Delivery Service

Ari reminds everybody in the East Village that on Saturday nights you can have your ice cream and belgian fries delivered to your front door. Get some eats!

Village Paper Up in Smoke

I didn't have the frame of mind this morning to jump off the bus to get photos of Village Paper closer to the time it burned, mostly because I didn't realize that it had happened. All I saw were dozens of firemen and surrounding streets blocked off. A quick search on NY1 said that there was an explosion this morning and then a fire in Village Paper. Later, these scary photos appeared on the web. This is the same block that had a pretty big fire about a year ago.

If you are in need of party supplies, this was the go to place. The aisles were crammed with everything from cards to placeholders to noisemakers to streamers. At Halloween the aisles were blocked by costumes and skulls. When a friend of mine looked at the devastation she said, "Oh my childhood is gone. I used to go in there with my little pennies to buy trinkets."

Since early this morning I have been hearing sirens outside constantly. The fire department seems to be very busy today. In other news, someone was reportedly shocked by rogue electricity from a grid or a manhole cover in the sidewalk on Morton Street. I can't find any official coverage of it, but that was the rumor this morning after firemen cordoned off the street.

SLA Town Hall

First, the SLA I refer to is not the Symbonese Liberation Army, but the State Liquor Authority. On Thursday evening, State Senator Daniel Squadron hosted a Town Hall for the new-ish head of the SLA to speak to residents and bar owners, and to answer their questions and listen to their gripes. And gripes there were aplenty. For a journalistic overview to the meeting, you can read about it at the Lo-Down. For my opinionated and sarcastic take, you can read about it here.

The evening started with someone, I think it might have been Squadron, but it also could have been Susan Stetzer (director of Community Board 3), raising a piece of paper to the crowd announcing that they found this posted on a blog, yes a blog. They said that the notice, which was actually a photo of a sign posted on the street alerting neighbors to this very meeting, made reference to the way that liquor licenses were being processed, with the inference that they are being rubber stamped to expedite them rather than consider the community's concerns. What struck me was that the emphasis that such information was found on a blog, rather than the fact that it was a photo of a notice on the street, implied that you can't trust blogs, as they are biased and are spreading rumors, when no mention was made that it was actually written by a block association and simply photographed and posted on a blog. Naturally, you cannot trust my blog, since I tend to exaggerate to make my point, and sometimes even outright lie, but other blogs, and especially Jeremiah's, have proved themselves to be quite trustworthy. In fact his blog was recently chosen as one of the best neighborhood blogs in New York.

At first, the politicians addressed the audience, saying very political things and trying to sound balanced as though they weren't going to favor one side over the other. And believe me, it was two sided. The bar owners were sitting all together on the left, with a few smattered about the rest of the auditorium, while the residents took up the other 2/3 of the seats. Each side cheered and applauded when something was said they agreed with, much like the state of the union address, but without the standing o's.

Deborah Glick, who I am a big fan of from my old activist days, used the words "Consciousness Raising" twice in her brief speech. Yet another reason I adore her. (Here is where that phrase originated.)

The question I wanted to ask, but didn't, was this: who is in charge of carrying those flags from one event to the next, and really, why bother.

For those of you who want to complain directly to the SLA, you can directly contact the man I like to think of as "the enforcer." He only spoke once, at length, and the mike wasn't that loud and his New York accent so intense that I got distracted and stopped paying attention about 30 seconds into his speech so I don't know what he said. He is an ex-Assistant DA whose job is to focus on the city and work with the police on enforcement. He can be found at mjones@abc.state.ny.us.

One fun moment of this long evening happened close to the beginning. The owner of the deli on 6th & B, who lives in that charming little house built on top of the deli said that his business depends on foot traffic, and thus the bars bring him business so he was in favor of more bars, not fewer. It was a good point for himself, but then he lost credibility by adding that the noise that the bars create isn't so bad, you just have to get used to it. This set off a big round of booing. Guess who started the booing. Hint: that guy annoyed me.

The one thing I learned from this evening was about the 500 foot rule, which is the rule that says that you can only have 3 bars within 500 feet of each other. What I learned was that it isn't an actual rule, but only a recommendation that the Community Board and the SLA should consider, along with all the other things they consider when approving a liquor license. This vaguery is what has got us into this mess, the rule has no teeth.

Last night, the street noise was as loud as ever, I had to push my way through giant crowds of drunkards to get home at 11pm, and I do not have any hope of the situation changing. But the community is active and the pressure will stay on the community board and the SLA to stop awarding licenses in congested areas and, as a friend pointed out, neighborhoods change, and ours will eventually go out of style and the bars will go somewhere else. By that time I will be dead.

Jamaica High School might be closing

Wow, this is pretty big news, I think. Look at the cast of characters who have graduated from here.

Ray's Candy Store to Offer Delivery Service

I heard through the Facebook grapevine, then confirmed with some of the organizers, that neighborhood teens are planning to plan a day to provide volunteer delivery service via skateboard to help increase sales for this troubled East Village institution. Ray is behind in his rent and the landlord has made numerous threats to lock him out. Best milkshake in the neighborhood.

Stay tuned for more details.

Teenage Dreams

If you are out of touch with what's on the minds of New York City's youth, ie the future of our city, a local high school student shares her thoughts. If she's in charge, I will sleep better at night.

Building Falls Over

This is the weirdest building collapse I've ever seen. I think they can get a big crane and pull it back up.

Benefit for Vicky & Matt

The backstory behind this event is a very long one about rent strikes, broken windows, getting evicted from their apartment on East 11th Street, and then the judge finding for them and letting them back in.

You can hear the whole story if you come to a benefit this Saturday, May 9th, to help Victoria & Matt raise the $8000 they need to pay their rent/back rent/lawyers fees by May 15 so they can actually get back into their apartment.

Who are Victoria & Matt? They have lived in the East Village for a million years and are very involved in community theater, carpentry, art and gardening. If you live here and don't know them, you've probably seen them around and just didn't know you knew them.

And, Miles (their son) made this cool flyer . Please pay it forward.

Earth Hour

Don't forget to take part in Earth Hour tomorrow (Saturday) at 8:30 pm. Lights out!

And, UFO sings it.

Benefit for Nina

This just in ... this Saturday there will be a benefit to raise money for Nina's vet bill (pictured above). She needs an operation, but for what I don't know. Whether you are a dog lover or not, Ray Santiago's music is always great, so stop by, pet the dog, listen to some live music, dance a little, and enliven your Saturday.

Live music with Ray Santiago & friends

join us to help raise funds

for Nina's vet bill

Saturday, March 28, 2009

2 PM ' til Dark

El Sol Briliante

530 east 12th street

(rain date location: Ray's Place 519 E 12th street, storefront)

In Our Depression of 2008 Stores Close, Not Banks

Here is a list of upcoming closures of retailers. So, if you are a gift card buying kind of gifter, think hard before gifting from these companies:

84 Lumber: 12 stores closing

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide. A company spokeswoman said the company hasn't revealed which stores will be shuttered. It will let the stores that will close this fiscal year know over the next month

Big Dollar: dollar stores closing 10 stores

Bombay Company The company unveiled plans! to close e all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores. The company's online storefront has discontinued operations.

Cache closing stores. Women's retailer Cache announced that it is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Circuit City Filed Bankruptcy, they promised to keep all stores open for the holiday season, but afterwards, they plan on closing 155 stores nationwide.

CompUSA (CLOSED) clarifies details on store closings Any extended warranties purchased for products through CompUSA will be honored by a third-party provider, Assurant Solutions. Gift cards, rain checks, and rebates purchased prior to December 12 can be redeemed at any time during the final sale. For those who have a gadget currently in for service with CompUSA, the repair will be completed and the gadget will be returned to owners.

Dell Inc. closed its 140 kiosks in the United States

Dillard's to Close More Stores Dillard's Inc. said it will continue to focus on closing underperforming stores, reducing expenses and improving its merchandise in 2008.At the company's annual shareholder meeting, CEO William Dillard II said the company will close another six underperforming stores this year.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores The Walt Disney Company announced it acquired about 220 Disney Stores from subsidiaries of The Children's Place Retail Stores. The exact number of stores acquired will depend on negotiations with landlords. Those subsidiaries of Children's Place filed for bankruptcy protection in late March. In the news release, Disney said it has also obtained the right to close about 98 Disney Stores in the U.S. The press release didn't list those stores.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores. Eddie Bauer has already closed 27 shops in the first quarter and plans to close up to two more outlet stores by the end of the year.

Ethan Allen Interiors - The company announced plans to close 12 of300+ stores in an effort to cut costs.

Foot Locker to close 140 stores In the company press release and during its conference call with analysts today, it did not specify where the future store closures - all planned in fiscal 2008 - will be. The company could not be immediately reached for comment

Gallery - 160 stores will close as part of a reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy. The video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores In addition to its namesake chain, Gap also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic . The company said the closures – all planned for fiscal 2008 - will be weighted toward the Gap brand.

Home Depot store closings Nearly 7+months after its chief executive said there were no plans to cut<>the number of its core retail stores, The Home Depot Inc. announced Thursday that it is shuttering 15 of them amid a slumping US. economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. Its shares rose almost 5 percent. The Atlanta-based company said the underperforming US stores being closed represent less than 1 percent of its existing storesThey will be shuttered within the next two months.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot will be scaling back and cutting jobs.

KB Toys posted a list of 356 stores that it is closing around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Kirklands: A chain of home decor stores will be closing nearly 130 stores nationwide.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide. The owner of retailers Lane Bryant , Fashion Bug, Catherines Plus Sizes will close about 150underperforming stores this year. The company hasn't provided a list of specific store closures and can't say! when it will offer that info, spokeswoman Brooke Perry said today.

Levitz- closed already The furniture retailer, which is going out of business. Levitz first announced it was going out of business and closing. All 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910 when Richard Levitz opened his first furniture store in Lebanon, PA. In the 1960s, the warehouse/showroom concept brought Levitz to the forefront of the furniture industry. The local Levitz closures will follow the shutdown of Bombay

Macy's - 9 stores

Linens 'n Things: Is closing 120 stores nationwide

Liz Claiborne Inc. said it's closing the entire 54-store Sigrid Olsen chain.

Lone Star Steak House: 27 stores closing.

Pacific Sunwear will close its 154 Demo stores after a review of strategic alternatives for the urban-apparel brand. Seventy-four underperforming Demo stores closed last May.

Pep Boys - 33 stores

Pier 1: Announced that they would be closing an undisclosed number of stores.

Rite Aid: 28 stores

Sharper Image: The company recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that 90 of its 184 stores are closing. The retailer will still operate 94 stores to pay off debts, but 90 of these stores have performed poorly and also may close.

Sprint Nextel - 125retail locations New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse appears to have inherited a company bleeding subscribers by the thousands, and will now officially be dropping the ax on 4,000 employees and 125 retail locations. Amid the loss of 639,000 postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, Sprint will be cutting a total of 6.7% of its work force (following the 5,000layoffs last year)! and 8% of company-owned brick-and-mortar stores, while remaining mute on other rumors that it will consolidate its headquarters in Kansas. Sprint Nextel shares are down $2.89, or nearly 25%, at the time of this writing.

Sprint: to cut 4500 jobs. and 125 stores.

Starbucks: Starbucks will close approximately 600 company- operated stores in the US

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. About a month ago, Talbots announced that it will be shuttering all 78 of its kids and men's stores. Now t he company says itwill close another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J Jill, another chain it owns. The closures will occur this fiscal year, according to a company press release.

Wickes is going out of business Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. Wickes, a 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Wilsons the Leather Experts - In February the retailer announced it was shutting the majority of its mall-based stores, and turning the remaining 100 mall stores into accessory boutiques called Studio..

Zales, Piercing Pagoda closing stores The owner of Zales and Piercing Pagoda previously said it plans to close 82 stores by Jul y 31. Today, it announced that it is closing another 23 underperforming stores. The company said it's not providing a list of specific store closures. Of the 105 locations planned for closure, 50 are kiosks and 55 are stores.

Hand Decorated Tins for Sale by East Village Artist

An East Village artist, and downstairs neighbor, and all around groovy gal, is selling these hand decorated tins made with original drawings in the decoupage style. The holidays are coming, so stock up now.

If interested, email me and I'll hook you up. There are more styles than I have photographs and they come and go as fast as she can make them. (Click on images to see larger/better)

Small, pill box size tin $5.00

Square, altoid-size tin $10

Round tin, 3" diameter x 1 3/4" tall $10

A Tree Ate My Car

At about 4:00 this gray afternoon, the husband and I finally made it out of the house to go to see the last day of the Cecily Brown exhibit on the west side. After pushing through about 5 crazies who were loitering in the hallway (which is another story for another day) we emerged to find a light drizzle outside. As we walked down the street we wondered about how we would fare the entire evening without an umbrella. Should we (or he) go back up 76 steps to get an umbrella? Should we buy yet another umbrella?

No, I said, why don't we get an umbrella from the trunk of the car. What a great idea. So, to the car we went, parked on the corner of 13th Street and Ave. B.

As we walked down the street, we noticed several police cars blocking the road. What had happened, we wondered? What were they doing? It seemed that they were removing a giant tree from on top of a car. What car? MY CAR.

Normally I would not visit my car unless I was going somewhere until at least Sunday afternoon when it is time to move it to the other side of the street. And since alternate sides are suspended this Monday I probably wouldn't have normally gone to see it until Monday afternoon.

It also turns out that the president of our garden, Ken, was driving on 13th Street and braked just in time to miss getting crushed by the tree, which skimmed the front of his car.

Type of tree: Callery Pear, known to have weak branches that fall frequently.







P.S. I told the cop on the scene that I would mention what a fine job they did removing the tree quickly. Yes they did. Right in same place where they put up a police cabin and spent over 2 years, full time, guarding an empty building to keep squatters out, ignoring the blatant drug dealing and crime going on in the one square block surrounding area.