'Sway' of life

The latest LP via Rotterdam's The Sweet Release of Death came out a few weeks back. The above audio clip for "Sway" provides a taste for what to expect.

"After watching all three films, New York just looks like the craziest place on Earth"

We've talked before about the work of photographer/filmmaker Richard Sandler. He has made several documentaries, including Brave New York, which chronicles the East Village from 1988-2003. Then there's Sway, which is 14 years of camcorder-recorded subway rides that have been edited together. These two films -- along with Subway to the Former East Village -- are being released on Brink DVD today.

Mike Everleth reviews the package in Bad Lit:

After watching all three films, New York just looks like the craziest place on Earth, which, for some including myself and obviously for Sandler, makes it just about the most beautiful place on Earth. There’s one touching scene in Sway when Sandler talks with an elderly gentleman about how great NYC is. The old man can’t find anything to love about it while Sandler gushes about the amazing parade of life that passes by everyday. And thank God Sandler was there with a camera to catch it all.

Report: Jennifer's Way Bakery involved in $43 million lawsuit

Actress Jennifer Esposito is being sued by her investors, including her soon-to-be-ex husband, over her gluten-free food empire, which includes the bakery on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, the Post reports.

According to the Post, Esposito and investors Lawrence Wenner and David Drake got together in 2014 to expand the business with a commercial plant in Queens to bake and ship orders from her website. (The baked goods are made in-house on East 10th Street.)

Per the paper:

Wenner and Drake sank $250,000 each into the business and then loaned $1 million to the enterprise, court papers say.

Esposito was supposed to transfer ownership of the East Village bakery to the newly formed company, Jennifer’s Way Inc., which she failed to do, court papers allege.

The investors contend Esposito was difficult to work with, in one instance nixing the use of a corn-based ingredient because “she personally was allergic to corn, and not because it posed any sort of danger to those suffering from celiac disease.”

I'm no longer affiliated w/jennifersWay online ordering. Just storefront bakery. 4 more info check out Jennifer's way Facebook page #celiac

— Jennifer'sWay Bakery (@JWayBakeryNYC) February 21, 2016

There are more sordid details in the article, including that Esposito was served with a restraining order against bad-mouthing her investors on social media.

Espositio's lawyer said the case was baseless and she was "misled by her investors, and has done nothing wrong to warrant a lawsuit."

She offers more details in a blog post from March 1:

It is with great sadness to say this but as you know me by now, my #1 goal was to always be transparent in my mission to create a safe place for us celiacs and allergy sufferers.

As founder and creator of Jennifer’s Way Bakery and its associated products and recipes, and as a person suffering from celiac disease, my mission was to always bring you the highest quality, the purest and the safest products I could possibly create. From my storefront bakery in Manhattan, I am able to ensure that my products were not only solely my inventions, but that they were also safe for celiac sufferers to consume.

Unfortunately, for the time being, the larger brand of Jennifer’s Way products, the products you purchase online, has sadly been taken out of my control. I will not and cannot get into the gory details at this juncture, but keeping with my brand’s connotation, I owe my loyal customers a duty to notify them of these concerns.

Please know that I am in the process of and will regain control of my products and when I do, I will be sure to report to you. For now, however, I cannot endorse something I have been pushed out of with a clear conscious

Jennifer’s Way Bakery in NYC (263 East 10th St) is still alive and kicking with my wonderful loyal staff continuing to bring you the safest product run by this celiac herself.

The gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free, soy-free, peanut-free, allergy-friendly, organic bakery opened on March 2, 2013.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Actress Jennifer Esposito's Jennifer's Way Bakery opening soon on East 10th Street (46 comments)

Out and About in the East Village,

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Gigi Watson
Occupation: Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, Former Club Worker and Owner
Location: 3rd Street between 1st and A.
Time: 1:30 pm on Friday, Oct. 24.

I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Ridgewood, on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, which now they can’t decide whether it’s Brooklyn or Queens. It was basically a German, Italian and Jewish neighborhood. The first thing you asked when you met another kid was what was your nationality.

There were places that we didn’t go. Bed Stuy and Red Hook, these were not places to go. In Red Hook, they used to find a dead body every single day. My train was the L, which used to be a horrible, horrible train. The L train connected with the G train, which was murder central. If someone paid me a million dollars in cash and said, ‘Here, get on the G train’, I’d say, ‘No thank you.’

My first apartment in Manhattan was a sublet on Christopher Street in the West Village. I moved in 1979. I then moved to the East Village in 1982, on 2nd Street between A and B. You had to have two or three jobs at the same time just to survive. That’s being a real New Yorker. My rent was so expensive. If I didn’t have two jobs, there would be no way I could cut that rent.

The first club I worked at was Bonds International Casino on Broadway and 45th Street. I was working behind the scenes in the office with guest lists, counting money. We had Blondie, The Clash, Blue Oyster Cult, Motley Crue, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who sucked. We had all kinds of punk rock bands. That’s where I developed a fear of crowds because the owner, John Addison, sold double the amount of tickets. We had 2,500-seat capacity and he sold 5,000 tickets per performance, and everybody showed up and was hammering on the door, ‘We want the show, we want the show.’ That place was fabulous.

[After Bonds] I worked at an after hours, where I worked the door. Cocaine was fantastic in the 1980s. That went right along with being at the front door. ‘Here, thanks a lot for letting me in,’ and I’d get a gram in my hand. That meant thank you. The stars I met — Nick Nolte, Grace Jones, Robin Williams, Paul McCartney. The list goes on and goes. Cause they would want to party late too.

I first worked in the cashier booth in Crisco [Disco], which is a famous haunt. We must have taken in at least between $8,000 and $10,000 on a Saturday night. It was a lucrative place.

After that I worked at Page 6. I was working the VIP room one month. Liza Minnelli was there snorting her brains out. Rick James comes in and puts a pile of coke on the table. All of a sudden you hear, ‘Freeze.’ So Rick James gets up, ‘Oh, I ain’t going to be arrested, I gotta get out of here, how do I get out?’ I said, ‘Mr. James there’s only one way out and that’s the way you came in.’ He walked out without a problem. It was the people that worked there that got busted because they didn’t have a liquor license.

After that I opened up my club, Trash. I was working at the time at Club 82, which was another after hours on 4th, and the manager there, John Matos said said to me, ‘Gi, why don’t you start your own club? How much do you need?’ We went shopping for furniture and I got all the stuff. I wanted neat 1960s furniture that was gaudy and cool looking. I wanted to do all the murals inside the club. I made the VIP room. I painted a big huge spider web so when you walked in, it was spinning. They would look up and sway from side to side. It was a cool place to be.

But that didn’t last very long because all the people who were great to look at had no money. Punk rockers do not have any money. Nobody had fucking money. Nobody had money for rent, forget about anything else.

Then one day a Hells Angel — this big Angel came in and went up to somebody at the bar and said, ‘Hey faggot’ and pushed him on the shoulder. The guy was a really cool looking punk rock guy and he was intimidated. Once the Angels come in, then it’s their club, and then it’s no longer my club or Trash. One brought many. Nobody would go there anymore. They were too afraid to go through the door. So that’s how Trash ended. That was about the time that punk rock itself was sort of waning.

Punk rock to me means anti-establishment. Punks saw that people conformed all over the place. It’s somebody with real talent to be unique and wild and out there. People used to come and sketch what I was wearing. The more beat up it is the better. They now have distressed leather. What fucking distressed? If you keep it on long enough, believe me it’ll become distressed. I always wanted to look different. I don’t want to look like anybody else. I want to look like me.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Reminder tonight!: Richard Sandler

Two documentaries by Richard Sandler, Brave New York and Sway, are playing tonight in the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B. (Brave New York chronicles the East Village from 1988-2003.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Richard Sandler's New York City

[Image: Richard Sandler, 1982]

A march to 'give us back our community center'

This coming Monday (Nov. 14), a group of activists is planning a march on the Midtown offices of Madison Realty Capital to demand the return of the former P.S. 64 to the community.

The long-empty building at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C fell into foreclosure earlier this year and is reportedly in the hands of lender Madison Realty Capital.

The five-floor building is being offered for use as medical space or educational-related purposes. Meanwhile, some residents want to see the space used as a community center, as it was during its time as CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center.

Here's more about Monday's noon-time action via the Facebook invite:

Hey Billionaires! Give Us Back Our Community Center! 

Recently the former P.S. 64 ... fell into foreclosure. It is now in the hands of the Madison Realty group, "a vertically integrated real estate private-equity firm that manages approximately $9.5 billion in total assets on behalf of an institutional global investor base."

These are the folks that currently hold sway regarding the future of our beloved community center. 

We need to let them know that: We Demand that the former P.S. 64 be returned to our Lower East Side community for use by our community. Protest at Madison Realty Capital offices: 520 Madison Ave. (between 53rd and 54th Streets).

Gregg Singer bought the property from the city during an auction in 1998 for $3.15 million. He later evicted CHARAS in 2001, and the building has sat empty ever since.

There's now an updated action on Monday afternoon directed toward then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Per the invite:

At 1:30 p.m., we’ll send "A Message to You, Rudy." We'll march to protest Rudy Giuliani's underhanded sale of the property by picketing the RUDY SHOW at WABC Radio, 800 Third Ave. (between 49th and 50th Streets).

You can find the Facebook invite here.

As previously reported, ownership of the property had been in transition. In January, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against Singer after years of delay. 

Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose, as reported by The Real Deal.

Singer wanted to turn the building into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized.

The address has multiple open fines and violations with the Department of Buildings, which still has a Stop Work Order (dating to August 2015) and a Full Vacate Order (from February 2019).

Photo by Kenny Toglia 

Richard Sandler's New York CIty

[Richard Sandler, 1982]

Gothamist had a great post yesterday on photographer/filmmaker Richard Sandler. He has made several documentaries, including Brave New York, which chronicles the East Village from 1988-2003. You can watch it here:



He has also made Sway, which, according to Gothamist, is 14 years of camcorder-recorded subway rides that have been edited together. Both films will be playing Aug. 22 in the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B. Some of his photos are in the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum.

Jennifer's Way Bakery now opens tomorrow

Had to push opening just one more day- sat at 12 !Just making things better for u all. Xoxo @jenniferswayje

— Jennifer'sWay Bakery (@JWayBakeryNYC) March 1, 2013

In case you were planning on waiting in line... Actress Jennifer Esposito's gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar-free, soy-free, peanut-free, allergy-friendly, organic bakery is at 263 E. 10th St., between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Actress Jennifer Esposito's Jennifer's Way Bakery opening soon on East 10th Street (46 comments)

RIP Gigi Watson

Gigi Watson, a longtime East Village resident, died on Friday. I don't have a lot of information at the moment. Her nephew shared the news via Twitter...

my aunt the psychic numerologist and original east village punker passed away last night. friday the 13th. full moon. from doing blow with rick james to trying to find joey ramone a girlfriend, she had the best stories in the worst way. i loved to make her laugh. rip gigi. ❤️

— momo (@SighPilot) September 14, 2019

James Maher interviewed her for our Out and About in the East Village feature in October 2014. It was a classic. Here it is again...

Name: Gigi Watson
Occupation: Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, Former Club Worker and Owner
Location: 3rd Street between 1st and A.
Time: 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24.

I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Ridgewood, on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, which now they can’t decide whether it’s Brooklyn or Queens. It was basically a German, Italian and Jewish neighborhood. The first thing you asked when you met another kid was what was your nationality.

There were places that we didn’t go. Bed Stuy and Red Hook, these were not places to go. In Red Hook, they used to find a dead body every single day. My train was the L, which used to be a horrible, horrible train. The L train connected with the G train, which was murder central. If someone paid me a million dollars in cash and said, ‘Here, get on the G train’, I’d say, ‘No thank you.’

My first apartment in Manhattan was a sublet on Christopher Street in the West Village. I moved in 1979. I then moved to the East Village in 1982, on 2nd Street between A and B. You had to have two or three jobs at the same time just to survive. That’s being a real New Yorker. My rent was so expensive. If I didn’t have two jobs, there would be no way I could cut that rent.

The first club I worked at was Bonds International Casino on Broadway and 45th Street. I was working behind the scenes in the office with guest lists, counting money. We had Blondie, The Clash, Blue Oyster Cult, Motley Crue, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who sucked. We had all kinds of punk rock bands. That’s where I developed a fear of crowds because the owner, John Addison, sold double the amount of tickets. We had 2,500-seat capacity and he sold 5,000 tickets per performance, and everybody showed up and was hammering on the door, ‘We want the show, we want the show.’ That place was fabulous.

[After Bonds] I worked at an after hours, where I worked the door. Cocaine was fantastic in the 1980s. That went right along with being at the front door. ‘Here, thanks a lot for letting me in,’ and I’d get a gram in my hand. That meant thank you. The stars I met — Nick Nolte, Grace Jones, Robin Williams, Paul McCartney. The list goes on and goes. Cause they would want to party late too.

I first worked in the cashier booth in Crisco [Disco], which is a famous haunt. We must have taken in at least between $8,000 and $10,000 on a Saturday night. It was a lucrative place.

After that I worked at Page 6. I was working the VIP room one month. Liza Minnelli was there snorting her brains out. Rick James comes in and puts a pile of coke on the table. All of a sudden you hear, ‘Freeze.’ So Rick James gets up, ‘Oh, I ain’t going to be arrested, I gotta get out of here, how do I get out?’ I said, ‘Mr. James there’s only one way out and that’s the way you came in.’ He walked out without a problem. It was the people that worked there that got busted because they didn’t have a liquor license.

After that I opened up my club, Trash. I was working at the time at Club 82, which was another after hours on 4th, and the manager there, John Matos said said to me, ‘Gi, why don’t you start your own club? How much do you need?’ We went shopping for furniture and I got all the stuff. I wanted neat 1960s furniture that was gaudy and cool looking. I wanted to do all the murals inside the club. I made the VIP room. I painted a big huge spider web so when you walked in, it was spinning. They would look up and sway from side to side. It was a cool place to be.

But that didn’t last very long because all the people who were great to look at had no money. Punk rockers do not have any money. Nobody had fucking money. Nobody had money for rent, forget about anything else.

Then one day a Hells Angel — this big Angel came in and went up to somebody at the bar and said, ‘Hey faggot’ and pushed him on the shoulder. The guy was a really cool looking punk rock guy and he was intimidated. Once the Angels come in, then it’s their club, and then it’s no longer my club or Trash. One brought many. Nobody would go there anymore. They were too afraid to go through the door. So that’s how Trash ended. That was about the time that punk rock itself was sort of waning.

Punk rock to me means anti-establishment. Punks saw that people conformed all over the place. It’s somebody with real talent to be unique and wild and out there. People used to come and sketch what I was wearing. The more beat up it is the better. They now have distressed leather. What fucking distressed? If you keep it on long enough, believe me it’ll become distressed. I always wanted to look different. I don’t want to look like anybody else. I want to look like me.

The future of 95 Avenue A

Just confirming one thing from Monday night's CB3/SLA meeting. Our reader in attendance thought that the people behind Cien Fueguos -- coming to 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street -- also had something to do with Death & Co. and Bourgeois Pig.

Indeed, that's the case, as Eater's Gabe Ulla reported:

Cienfuegos restaurant (95 Ave. A) was the rare case of a new app within a resolution area receiving unanimous approval from the board. The restaurant’s team, which consists of Luis Gonzalez (ex-Mercer Kitchen) and Death & Co. and Bourgeois Pig operatives, knew exactly what they had to do to sway the board: they presented petitions with over 1,000 signatures, demonstrated the public benefit from having a straight-up Cuban restaurant in a city that doesn't have many of them, and stressed their nearly immaculate records.

I'm all for "a straight-up Cuban restaurant," but, given the pedigree of the owners here, is the neighborhood in for, say, $26 mojitos?

Final visits to 5 downtown businesses

[Patricia Field, center with red hair, with her friends and fans in front of her namesake store on its closing day Sunday at 5 p.m.]

Text and photos by Nick McManus

This past Sunday, a team of close friends and I took group portraits at five downtown businesses that are either moving from their longtime homes or closing forever as February came to a close.

We started at Patricia Field at 306 Bowery with Patricia herself. She's giving up the boutique business after 50 years to focus on her film and TV work.

We continued on to Trash and Vaudeville on St. Mark's Place where we were joined by longtime manager Jimmy Webb. (The store is moving to 96 E. Seventh St. this month.)




[Jimmy Webb in the front row with co-workers at Trash and Vaudeville]

We then walked to Soho to Pearl River Mart, where the staff was camera shy but let us take photos in the store on Broadway. The 45-year-old Pearl River Mart closes this week after its monthly rent multiplied 12x to upwards of $500,000.


[Last purchases at Pearl River Mart]

Afterward we visited the Soho location of Eastern Mountain Sports on Broadway to offer them warm wishes before heading back to the East Village to say goodbye to one of the best bookstores NYC will ever know, St. Mark's Bookshop.


[The staff and patrons of Eastern Mountain Sports' Soho location on its closing day Sunday]


[St. Mark's Bookshop staff member and artist Janet Bruesselbach, top right, sharing wine with her customers on the shop's final day at 7 p.m.]

Our team consisted of nightlife scion Pebbles Russell, who herself said goodbye to her home at Sway Lounge last December, artists Gabriel Specter and Jackson Lin, stylist Goldie Rush, costume tailor Amy McClure and Cara Brininstool. All were fans of these businesses and everyone did a great deal of shopping as we thanked those behind the counter for so many years of good times.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Closing time: Portraits of 3 newly shuttered storefronts

Closing portraits at The Sock Man

A final group photo at Vic's Pizza on Essex Street

Jennifer's Way Bakery sells out of everything on opening day

The gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free, soy-free, peanut-free, allergy-friendly, organic bakery from actress Jennifer Esposito opened yesterday on East 10th Street.

They were apparently busy.

Wow what a day!!! Sold out in a few hrs!! Thanks 2everyone for your love and support! Start again 2morrow at 12! See u them @jenniferswayje
— Jennifer'sWay Bakery (@JWayBakeryNYC) March 3, 2013

Did anyone try it?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Actress Jennifer Esposito's Jennifer's Way Bakery opening soon on East 10th Street (46 comments)