Saturday, January 31, 2009
Speak Out for Recently Deceased Antonio Pagan at 7th St. and Avenue A ...
At 8pm Saturday night 4 journalists , including a NY Times reporter, 2bloggers and 3 other folks gathered to speak to Antonio Pagan's passing . Only 2 of those present spoke , Slacktivist John Penley and former squatter Jimmy Samopolis , and they had nothing good to say of the man . No flags were in sight let alone burned as some had suggested might happen .
See also the NY Times blog for the comments concerning Mr. Pagan :
Friday Night Bum Fight on Avenue A ...
The boys were drinking again on avenue A Friday night . Nothing new ; the regulars were swilling away with abandon as is common on the avenue A strip .
Among them all , by far the most thoroughly pickled was Gesus . Though no one noticed much , he had significant difficulty remaining up-right at times .
This Friday night a thoroughly sloshed and belligerent Gesus claimed that Jewels had walked off with his beer money and had not returned with any beer . Jewels did return but without beer .
When Gesus sighted Jewels he went straight for him ; attacking Jewels sneakily from behind with a blow to the head and then a grapple . A surprised Jewels reversed the hold that G had on him . He took G to the street between two parked cars and put him down , ramming his head first into the pavement and then into the bumper of one of the parked cars . Clearly the lesser impaired of the two , Jewels , won this one .
The police had been called early so the fight was over quickly . The cops gave G a chance to walk away but he demanded that they cuff him ...which they did . After taunting G for a while the cops made a blustering , victorious Jewels leave the scene. The cops put G in an ambulance and sent him to detox at Bellevue .
This night Jewels fought to win and being the less drunk of the two combatants actually won this fight . A profoundly different outcome from 2 summers ago in Tompkins Square Park when we saw and heard Jewels ; while wearing filthy , shit-stained and tattered clothes , limping and leaning on his cane and sporting 2 black eyes ; after two days of total enebriation and beatings ; singing " I Fight To Lose " to any one that would listen .
Friday, January 30, 2009
At Ray's Window Friday Night
Ed and Friend Eden on Avenue A
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Biker Bill Says : " Usurpers and Pretenders Beware. All Shall Know Now That I Am Now and Always Have Been the One True Biker Bill"
It's never simple . Existence is just one challenge after another and among those who count , it is well known that our Biker Bill indeed thrives on challenge ... so it is for our brother Biker Bill .
Some times a man is forced to piss-out his territory to show the usurper , the pretender , even the innocent just where and what the limits amount to . According to Slum Goddess today such a piss-out may be necessary . There is some confusion about who's who with some folks . Take a look :
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Concerning the Handling of Flags ....
Flag burning was an East Village tradition . For as long as we can remember in this part of town in our public park , Tompkins Square Park , the Flag was burned pretty much as often as not . Recent events though seem to indicate a change of attitudes in the matter of handling the Flag .
The new downtown crowd doesn't seem to share the traditional attitude toward the Flag . As above on election night the Flag was displayed ; not burned but sung to .
According to Slum Goddess local Slacktivists may take us back at least one more time to the ways of yore this Saturday night in TSP .
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Joe's New Wheels at Ray's Window ...
Joe has a new ride , a battery powered electric conveyance with candy-apple red fenders . Tonight he was at Ray's Candy Store , for Joe now a "drive-in" , having his usual green pistachio ice cream . He travels a long way to get to Rays these days .
Not long ago Joe lived in the neighborhood .His father was a police officer here . Joe and some of his family has lived in the neighborhood for many years . Recently he was forced by circumstances beyond his control to move to a section 8 apartment in Newark . He now travels frequently back to the old home neighborhood using public transportation in New Jersey and New York riding in his new electric wheeled chair . One of his favorite stops of course is Ray"s Candy Store where his old neighborhood friends still congregate .
Joe is a baseball aficionado , an expert in past or present baseball fact ; ask him a baseball related question and you'll see . Today we asked him about Joe Torre's new book and how it damns the "Boss". His take was that it's all very unfortunate but he was wronged by Yankee's management and it's just payback . Joe also suspects that Torre probably needed the money .
Monday, January 26, 2009
Birthday Number 76 for Ray : Big Party With Burlesque Performance by "Mini Malicious" at Ray's Candy Store Sunday Night ...
Jay ,Biker Bill , Eden and Cowboy Stanley at Ray's waitng for the performance to begin . It was crowded enough inside later that many people just watched it all through the door glass or store front windows .
Sunday night there was a special birthday party for a special neighborhood guy . Ray turned 76 years old today and his friends and some others too celebrated his birthday with him at his candy store . Even Cowboy Stanley braved the very cold night for this special event .The party started a bit after 11pm with a burlesque performance by dancer Mini Malicious . The partiers , mostly guys , were lined up at the counter well ahead of time .
This performance , as were those from the last two birthday celebrations , is presented here at NMNL for your enjoyment .
Mini Malicious performs regularly around town . More on all of that here :
Ray loved it all .
East Village "Slacktivist" John Penley was impressed .
Stanley's passions , already stirred by Mini's performance , were whipped even more thoroughly as if by a "MixMaster" when Mini let him hold her bustier.
The birthay boy's birthday kiss .
What did Stanley get ? Was it just an autograph or was it a number too?
Ilya , the guy who has organized all three past Ray's birthday celebrations . Below Mini displays a B&W Polaroid that Ilya made with his antique Polaroid camera .
The birthday cake supplied by Eden .
Not all present were neighborhood regulars . The guy in these three shots was a stranger that had been partying privately with himself long before he got to Rays . He told Ray that he had a reason to get high today ; he just got out of prison after having spent 8 years incarcerated upstate . Biker Bill was ready to hit him .
The celebration went on for a few hours with neighborhood folks stopping in with gifts , good spirits , congratulations and toast after toast .
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A Lunar New Year Past in China Town ...
No more will be seen such clouds and atmosphere of acrid , sulphurous black powder smoke nor will the report be heard of thousands of fire crackers , large and dangerous as well as small , as on the day pictured above. The strange , awkward mingling of two cultures , a remnant Italian and the ascendant hegemonic Chinese ,will not be so tentatively manifest as was on this day . Two most recent political administrations have seen to end all of this .
We do not know the exact year of this celebration of the Lunar New Year downtown in China town but we recollect that it was sometime in the middle '80 s .
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