Monday, January 07, 2008
One Night in the Late Nineties Mordecai Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization Visited East 8th Street ....
Mr. Levy came to the East Village one night in the late nineties to Rabbi Fried's 8th Street Shul at 317 east 8th st. . Rabbi Fried , who routinely wore an entertainingly parti-colored (nearly psychedelic) yarmulke and who was also several months later arrested for possession of "medical" marijuana , ran a sort of ecumenical alternative shul in this venerable neighborhood synagogue .
Mr. Levy had come to the shul to warn the neighborhood of Nazis and members of other extremist organizations such as the "National Alliance" that were in their midst . Describing in detail the threat he also displayed video's of his "troops" practicing , shooting-up the Nevada desert with fully automatic weapons .
He was also likely very interested in raising money to support his para-military operations .
The event was attended by a broad selection of Jews , young and old ; from the very ultra-orthodox , Hasidic members were there , to the purely secular including a couple of old-style Trotskyists whose concerns he spent a good bit of time entertaining . Numerous non-jews were also present . Those in attendence were from the neighborhood as well as from all the far corners the NYC metro area .
As anyone familiar with NMNL knows his target subjects did exist .
Saturday, January 05, 2008
October 2002 : Mini-Pizza at Ray's...
Before Ray sold the Belgian fries that are so popular today at his candy store he made a brief attempt to sell a peculiar small mini-pizza . The pizza which never sold well , most often sat rotating in the display case turning an un-appealing brown color.
It was though only a dollar a slice . When a slice had turned really , really brown , it could be had for even less .
April 2001 : A Message From "Loan Shark Bob" and Friends at Ray's
In addition to running his shylocking and fencing operations Bob often associated with various militia members .He was often seen in the company of these individuals at political demostrations . He often boasted of spending a portion of his summer with these same individuals playing with automatic weapons and tracked vehicles at their training camps in various out-of-the-way mountainous locations .
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The New "New Museum" on the Bowery ...
With all the architectural finesse of an industrial warehouse with some peculiar detail including heavy-duty expanded metal screen covering the entire building ...including the high-up windows ( will an angry rabble really hurl rocks and bottles that high ?) ... the new " New Museum" is now a major Bowery sideshow .
With 3 floors of galleries , a theater below grade , some administrative areas , and a mixed-use ground floor all manner of contempoary art is on display . While flat-panel monitor displays , constructions of all sorts and drawn and painted things might befuddle some attending , a resource center and an in-museum book-store provide a possible path for anyone interested to an enlightened understanding of contemporary art confabulations .
With faith and hard work there is the possibility of "coming to know" for the uninitiated . Indeed if one choses to devote a few days to study in the downtown contemporary art scene there is right next door to the museum ( for the time-being at least ) the Sunshine Hotel where one can take residence and every day continue late into the night with one's aesthetic lucubrations .
iPod
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Early New Year's Day 2008 : Biker Bill and Spike at Ray's Candy Store
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