Did you get to the Ilana Simons opening at GirlsClub last Friday? Marshall did, and he took a video, so you’ll get an idea. He also started a dialogue with the artist in his messages. Interesting. Simons teaches writing at the New School and is a gifted artist.

Totally rags to riches. IN 1978, when a 21-year-old named Norman Scherer was working for the Unique Clothing Warehouse in the East Village with another employee, a young man whom Mr. Scherer knew only as Jean-Michel. A friend informed him that the man’s last name was Basquiat (d. 1988). Scherer discovered a manila folder tied with string with 18 postcards by Basquiat, all copies of the originals, but all signed by the artist. Scherer, who is 50, took his cards to Woodward Gallery on the Lower East Side, which is exhibiting works by Basquiat through Nov. 3 and already got an offer of $12 thousand a piece. Good story. (NY Times).

Should kids get sex for free? That’s what we figured out from this NY Post item, under the headline Brothel ‘Shock’: “Parents were stunned yesterday to hear that sleazy pimps running a Chinatown cathouse had been approaching kids at a nearby school trying to draw them in to pay for sex.” Vice cops shuttered the bawdy bordello tucked behind a ping-pong parlor at 39 Eldridge St. after getting complaints from parents that their kids were being handed business cards trying to lure them in. Five people were arrested. Well, despite what the Poast thinks, we happen to think kids should pay for stuff like everybody else!

New Website Helps Drivers Find Legal Street Parking in Manhattan. Computer programmer Mike Hill got tired of circling his East Village neighborhood nearly every night for one year looking for valid parking spaces for his motorcycle and his wife’s car. He decided to create a computer program to help him find the best places to look for parking. Primospot.com and m.primospot.com are free and allow people to find the best spots within an area for street parking. (Emediawire)

Xenophobia thy name is Cindy Adams. Oh, goodness, but the woman hates the foreigner. “Walk our streets. English is the second language,” this high-gloss pink person writes in today’s NY Post, under the headline NYC Is Becoming Foreign to Me. More: “Two days ago a lady, speaking some gibberish that Berlitz doesn’t teach, asked me directions to someplace.” And: “Anyone notice that our previous 7 p.m. dining hour has crept to 7:30? Then 8? Why? South Americans have swarmed in.” We’re coming back to her column just to be there when she starts talking Final Solution…

Pondicherry dosa wins the Vendy. The Vendy Awards contest was organized by the Urban Justice Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, as a fund-raiser for its Street Vendor Project, which represents about 650 food vendors, a fraction of the city’s 10,000 purveyors. Our choice quote from the NY Times piece: “We don’t have contests like this in the West Bank! I wish!” exclaimed Fares Zeideia, 41, over the sizzle of cooking chicken. It’s definitely one of the things they don’t have in the West Bank.

House Passes Controversial Small Biz Bill cosponsored by Velazquez. The bill would enable small firms that have venture capital backing to qualify for all federal small business programs, including procurement contracts and special research grants. The measure swiftly scooted through the approval process, cosponsored by panel Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez. The House passed the bill 325-72. Critics say the bill is full of holes that will enable billion-dollar companies to benefit from federal small-business programs. (Washington Post)

by Yori Yanover
This morning we celebrated the Sukkot intermediary days (Yeah! Intermediary days! So much intermediary fun for al!) with the Hallel hymns, with musical accompaniment by Rabbi Yossi Pollak. If you’re not Jewish or not Orthodox, this may not seem like a big deal to you, because in your house of worship musical instruments are part of the essential service. But since our exile from Judea in the First Century, traditional Jews are not allowed to play musical instruments on the Sabbath and holidays, and so those intermediary days, when playing an instrument is permitted, become highly prized opportunities to push the spiritual envelope.

As we shook the branches of Myrtle, and Willow and Palm, together with the Citrus fruit Etrog, a sweet and pungent aroma filled up the sanctuary. I was trying to imagine how heavenly the place would smell with 100 people shaking their lulavim. It’s heady stuff.

We didn’t get a huge crowd, because many people opt to stay with relatives in suburbia, where they can avoid the communal sukkah experience. Later today I’ll be sharing with you pictures and details from the Sukkot Across America event, which will take place in the Seward Park sukkah (Grand bet. Clinton and Ridge) from 2 and 4 pm.

Our Hallel and the rest of the service (circling the Torah with our Four Species and repeating liturgical verses) were sweet and benign this morning. You can come join us for more Intermediary fun every morning at 6:45, and then for Simchat Torah.

Just to remind everyone, Simchat Torah is when the ladies get their own separate service at Stanton, complete with blessings of the Torah and their reading aloud is allowed.

The Stanton Shul is at 180 Stanton Street, bet. Clinton and Attorney.

Larry King insulted by celebrity chef over bagel shmearing incompetence. Last night CNN’s Larry King hosted abusive, nasty, creepy celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (Hells Kitchen), and their ambitious cooking segment taught how to smear cream cheese on a bagel. Some of the transcript is pretty shocking:

KING: I’m using a spoon because we don’t have forks, CNN budget. And then I put that down, and I take a piece of lox or whatever they call it.
RAMSAY: OK. Smoked salmon from Scotland.
KING: Smoked salmon from Scotland, lox from down lower east side.
RAMSAY: OK. First of all, I’ll never go to your house, just the way you spread that cream cheese, it’s so thin, that means you’re mean. You’re really tight. You come around, you start crying when the string breaks, you take the money out of the pot.
KING: I do not. (Extreme Mortman)

Shelly trumps Bloomberg on Congestion Plan. The 17-member traffic congestion mitigation committee, which will meet several times, is required to vote by majority on the implementation plan by January 31, 2008. The mayor, the governor, and the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, each appointed members to the committee. Mr. Silver has said he is undecided about the plan. At the meeting yesterday, held at Baruch College, Assemblyman Herman Farrell, a Democrat of Harlem and an appointee of Mr. Silver, said the ultimate goal of the traffic plan is unclear. “Are they trying to decrease the amount of cars coming in or increase the amount of money we’re getting?” he asked. (NY Sun)

SUV kills woman at 6th and Houston. The police arrested a Brooklyn man who they say was driving his SUV under the influence of drugs when he fatally struck a female pedestrian with his vehicle in Downtown Manhattan yesterday morning and then tried to flee the scene. The woman, Hope Miller, 28, of Queens, was crossing Houston Street near Avenue of the Americas about 7:15am. Councilman Alan Gerson said, "This intersection has been a safety disaster." Ban trucks and SUVs from the city, you won’t need congestion pricing. (NY Times)

Girls Write Now. GWN provides at-risk high school girls with emerging writing talent the unique opportunity to be custom matched with a professional woman writer who serves as her individual mentor and writing coach, meeting with her weekly for one entire school year, and for up to four years. The program is celebrating its ten-year anniversary October 18, at the Slipper Room. You don’t have to take off your shirt. (Tayari’s Blog)

2nd Ave. Subway gets half its budget from the feds. The Federal Transit Administration approved a $1.3 billion grant toward the long-awaited $3.8 billion project. “This full-funding grant agreement is a giant piece of the puzzle needed to build the Second Avenue subway,” said our and your Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. (NY Post) Maloney added that the funds will go toward the first of four sections of the 8.5-mile-long subway line. When completed, the line will run from 125th Street to Hanover Square. (AP)

by Jonathan Leeder
If you’re tired of hitting the same old venues week after week, here are some new options. Thursday night over at Crash Mansion on The Bowery is The Lloyd Dobler Effect. I’ve yet to visit this venue as I’ve always thought it was more of a club, but I’m curious: There’s always a long line outside the joint on the weekends. The music will be power rock pop and I’m guessing the crowd will be of the college variety.

Another venue I’ve yet to visit is Mehanata at 113 Ludlow. On Friday Eastern Blok, virtuoso guitar front-man Goran Ivanovic’s European acoustic jazz band, will be performing.

On Friday night at The Rockwood Music Hall is the beautiful Rhei C. (sounds like REE-SEE, yumm) Her music is old-timey and lovely and makes me think of crackling old records spinning the sounds of Patsy Cline and Cole Porter.

Over at The Living Room is a nice triple bill. Two indie folk acts in the form of Matt Kanelos and Rob Szabos will be warming up the crowd. The Truthseekers will be playing their soul-bluesy-funk music in celebration of their cd release.

Saturday night over at The Bowery Ballroom finds The Alternate Routes opening for Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers. Bridgeport, Conn’s Alternate Routes have been hitting the road hard this past year, playing solid material from their incredible album Good and Reckless and True. These guys won’t be an opening act for much longer. Just about everyone who sees them quickly falls in love with their well-crafted songs and kick-ass live set. Go see this show, MUCHO bang for the buck.

Over at The Delancey, right near The Williamsburg Bridge, is Trashlight Vision. These guys play dirty filthy punk music that reminds me of that scene from the movie SLAPSHOT where the goons play rough and tough hockey and call it "ol time hockey." Trashlight Vision play "ol time punk."

Wrapping up the weekend is U.S.S.A. at Club Midway. This is another unique space for music with a circus like bar upstairs, an a small loud room in the basement. They call their brand of rock music "minimalist." Not really sure what that means, but with members coming off Ministry and The Jesus Lizard, I’m sure it will be interesting, to say the least. Supporting that bill will be Philly’s Stinking Lizaveta and their heady, progressive metal rock.

by Yori Yanover
Dog (that’s his name) is a 9-year-old Lhasa Apso with dark brown eyes and a black nose and a heavy, wooly coat who lives in East River Housing. His good friend and neighbor Ziggy is a 2-year-old Shih Tzu, with similar features. Both species come from Tibet and both are the toy-dog descendants of guards and warriors. They’re smart and sweet and lazy beyond human comprehension.

They conducted a sitting race yesterday, on the walkway outside 573-7 Grand Street, actively not budging an inch. Both their owners say these animals could sit in one place for days and be totally satisfied. According to Dog’s owner, Felix, he is extremely adept with commands like Play dead, Wait, and Sit.

I find both of them so amazingly loveable, and I completely identify with their take on life, which is to let it pass by gently.

by Susan LaRosa
Rather than preparation for future construction, the test borings being conducted in front of the Abrons Arts Center are part of the exploratory process to help determine if a project to improve our programs and upgrade our spaces makes sense at all for the Henry Street Settlement and the community we serve. The work will be completed in less than a week and the sidewalk will be returned to normal.

Adam Stennett, Use Only as Directed. With this show Adam Stennett continues his exploration of the intimate dramas of the everyday, and the precarious balance of awareness and oblivion. Stennett’s subject matter has evolved—the adventurous mice that had been his trademark are now replaced by images of girls poised precariously near turbulent water and various medicinal products put to queasy, off-label uses. They are simultaneously seductive and discomforting. They speak directly to the all-too-human highs and lows we all experience. (Artcal) Catch his earlier works here. Details: Gallery 31 Grand, 143 Ludlow Street, bet. Rivington and Stanton, 212.228.0901, October 10 - November 10, opening: Wednesday, October 10, 7 - 9pm.

Drew University woman to read her poetry some time tonight. Christine Hamm writes she’s "doing a reading with my lovely friend Cheryl Burke today at Bluestockings bookstore on the Lower East Side (of Manhattan). I’ll be reading my poetry –duh – and Cheryl will be reading an excerpt from her fantastic memoir or her poetry — both are great. The open mike starts at 7 and the reading will commence at 7:30. September 25, Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street bet. Stanton and Rivington. We hate poetry, which is why Hamm’s totally appealed to us:

I keep a pet
woman under my bed.
She’s small
and feisty, with sharp teeth.

I make her
wear all the clothes I hate;
high heels, garter belts, clingy velour.
I feed her chocolate and wine from a box.
She glares at me as she twirls
the curling iron through her brown hair.
I let her out once a week for a bubble bath.

When she’s PMSing
she kicks the bottom of my mattress
to keep me awake. I punish her
by taking away her cable.
She pouts, spends all day looking at her mirror
instead of me. I get her a fist-sized disco ball:
we kiss and make up.

Lower East Side makes the big time in Chelsea. You know you’ve made it when your work is known in two New York neighborhoods… The opening night of Clayton Patterson’s show of Lower East Side photographs at Kinz/Tillou + Feigen gallery, 529 W. 20th St., on Sept. 10 was jampacked. A hip crowd — many of them wearing Patterson’s signature Clayton caps — took in the exhibit of more than 50 photos, culled from a selection of 2,000, just a fraction of Patterson’s voluminous archives. (The Villager)

Mayor Rejects Suggestion That State Will Punish Columbia. Not the shuttle, the Upper west Side university, where the dean calls over major world tyrants and insults them on camera. Did you see it? We had a seriously hard time deciding which of the two men on stage was the bigger deuche bag – and one of them hangs people! Anyway, Bloomberg thinks Shelly Silver was wrong when he told the NY Sun: “Obviously, there’s some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of … knowing that this is that kind of an institution."

Jerry Nadler catches spy chief McConnell by the tail. We say, if you plan to steal our civil rights, at least get your math straight. In an August interview with The El Paso Times and in subsequent testimony, Mike McConnell said that it took 200 man-hours on average for the FISA Court to issue a warrant for each application in 2006, as part of his argument that the traditional application process was cumbersome. But James Baker, former counsel to the Justice Department’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, which oversees the FISA Court, stated that the process could be as quick as minutes. Rep. Nadler noted that if the 200-hour estimate were correct, it would have required 436,000 man-hours by the FISA Court for all the recorded warrants it issued in 2006. That’s 54,500 8-hour days. Gosh, don’t you miss the days when the Busheviks lied with authority?

Your Ukrainian Possibly Mail Order Girlfriend is Totally Making Everybody Uncomfortable (Part 1). We’re hooked on this, here it is, verbatim: I’ve posted before about my friend Burlesque. She’s the woman who used to be an aspiring actress, and is now a teacher. The one who used to go go dance at a Lower East Side bar. The one with the fantastic body that members of both sexes are wont to praise to the skies. It’s just kind of hard not to. Burlesque, up until she realized that she didn’t want to be a poor, starving artist anymore, used to have some kind of day job doing administrative work at an investment bank. She hated it. (Lunch Hour Pops)

by Pat Arnow
A bunch of fast-talking, idealistic, scrappy New Yorkers are heading to a hip-hop festival in Cuba. When they get there, they learn something about the reality of revolution. This full-length play now at the Abrons Arts Center is full of verve, engaging characters, and political questions we often ponder and can never fully understand.

It’s a big messy package with too many characters, too much exposition, and unsatisfying answers to troubling questions. And yet, there’s so much life in it– characters with big personalities, big performances, humor, and even entertaining exposition, that it’s worth seeing.

Besides, how often can you walk a few blocks to see new plays? Well, all the time, of course, this is the Lower East Side of New York, after all. And part of what is so great about living here is the opportunity to see playwrights and performers who are just developing their voices, experimenting, sometimes falling on their faces, but sometimes, as in moments in Till the Break of Dawn, showing sparks of brilliance, electrifying and satisfying.

Till the Break of Dawn, written & directed by Danny Hoch

Presented in conjunction with Culture Project and the Hip-Hop Theater Festival

Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand St. (at Pitt), Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Sunday, Oct. 21, Tuesdays - Saturday at 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm, Tickets, $35 ($15 for students) Get them at the Abrons Center or call 212.598.0400, ext. 220, (or click here for Broadway Box for $25 tickets)

by Yori Yanover
CMI, a Tappan-based firm specializing in subsurface investigation, sent a technician to Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center, to survey the quality of the ground, in preparation for future construction. The Settlement is considering the option of razing the newer section of the arts center (without the landmarked Harry De Jur playhouse) and constructing luxury condominiums. We left our phone number with a number of people in the know and will update you soon.

by Yori Yanover
If you live on the Lower East Side and you know what you’re doing, you’re likely to ignore the long tables covered with etrogim at the corner of Essex and Canal, where for generations Jews from around town used to come for their Four Species. You go instead to Reb Berel Feinshtein’s temporary quarters in the Sons of Moses Synagogue, at 135 Henry Street. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with the merchandize on Essex and Canal, but the neighborhood prefers to buy from its own.

I picked up an amazing etrog there today, for $55, really yellow and really bumpy (the bumps are the signs of beauty in an etrog, as opposed to a lemon). I also got me a mid-length lulav, nice and tight, that should stand up to a lot of shaking. And I got two sets each of myrtle and willow branches, vacuum packed, which I’m keeping in the vegetable bin.

My secret for keeping my myrtles and willows alive for the holiday week is to store them with a few drops of water in the veggie bin.

Back on the sidewalk at Essex and Canal, Shimon, a nice Israeli fellow, was seriously upset with the pace of business, only two days before Sukkot. He showed me some of his etrogim – including the elusive yanover etrog – and bemoaned the lack of public interest. My sense is, if you’re reading this page and you’re interested, it’s probably a buyer’s market over there, and, like I said, the etrogim are gorgeous.

Next year, Shimon vows, he’s going to Queens.

Please tell us if this is a good or bad review… "Unsane upped the ante on the paradigm for abrasive noise rock. With its implacable, corrosive feedback, noisy riffs, distorted vocals, thumping bass, and barely contained drum fury, this is a damaging – and quite damaged – record. The Lower East Side trio’s inaugural release assaults the senses like the Swans or Foetus before them, but tempers that art-scum priggishness with clear roots in punk and classic rock." (Bohren - Noise Rock Classics) Check out their Myspace page. Here’s a bit of sweet trivia: The band’s self-titled debut was released in 1991 and was known for its harsh music and gruesome cover art: a photo of a decapitated man on a New York city subway track, his body still wearing a Members Only jacket. Turns out now they’ve upped the ante…

Homeless-Themed ‘Dreams of Home. This fall, the Monarch Theatre Company will present the US premiere production of Dreams of Home, a provocative, poetic and poignant play by acclaimed playwright Migdalia Cruz. Performances begin Wednesday October 24 through Sunday November 11, in a special three-week engagement at CenterStage NY. Granted, there’s nothing directly LES-related in this item, but it’s been a tough day, what with Ahmadinejad grabbing all the headlines.

Silver warns Columbia he’d clip state aid if they let Ahmadinejad speak. For the record, we also hate the guy totally and refused to invite him to our headquarters for a cup of coffee and a piece cake. He cannot deny the Holocaust and threaten to destroy Israel and at the same time ask for the wife’s delicious fruit cake. There’s a limit even to our renowned tolerance. (NY Sun)

Chinatown Residents Frustrated Over Street Closed Since 9/11. True enough, we are also pretty pissed. The eastern half of Park Row, which has historically been a major four-lane artery linking the financial district to Chinatown, has been closed to commuter traffic since Sept. 11, 2001, even as other streets and public spaces in Lower Manhattan have reopened. The Police Department says it has to be blocked off to protect One Police Plaza against terrorist threats, particularly truck bombs. It’s reassuring to know our top cops are kept out of harm’s way. (NY Times)

Never Pay Another Overdraft Fee. The Consumer Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act, introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney and scheduled for a vote in the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, could go a long way to reduce the hidden overdraft fees paid by every day Americans to their banks, which total $17.5 billion per year according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Hey, we just saved $17.5 billion, let’s go out! (Center For American Progress)

by Pat Arnow
Lots of swimming classes are starting at the refurbished pool in the Masryk Towers by the Williamsburg Bridge (Columbia just north of Delancey inside the courtyard of the high-rises). Seahorse Swim Club offers Saturday, Sunday, and after-school pre-beginner, intermediate and more advanced classes for children of all ages. On weekends there’s a morning “Mommy and Baby” class, and a midday swim team on Sundays.

Starting Monday evening, “Efficient Technique” classes for adults also begin with a triathlon coach from JackRabbit (a training and fitness operation). They say you don’t need to be a super-athlete to take the class, just someone who wants to improve strokes and efficiency. (Can he help you turn your sad little crawl into a beautiful freestyle? Yes!) It costs $215 for the 10-week program (7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Sept. 24-Dec. 3).

But you can happily lap away with your sad little crawl or any other stroke because there are plenty of lap times at the pool. My lap-swimming neighbors are in a heaven. Finally, there’s a place to swim in the neighborhood. They report that there are plenty of lanes available in the mornings, early afternoons and evenings, the water is clean, and the temperature is between 85 and 90. That’s bliss for most swimmers.

Tommy Ho, the swimming maven who fixed up the derelict pool that was built when the towers went up a long time ago, is an engaging and enthusiastic entrepreneur who is working hard to bring people to this good pool in the neighborhood.

Call Seahorse at 212.254.3651 for class schedules and rates, or stop by 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8:00 to 8:00 weekends. (Closed Mondays except for the Efficient Technique class.)

Greenpoint spill 3 times larger than the Exxon Valdez. An Environmental Protection Agency study puts the size of the underground oil spill that has been leaking toxic vapors into Greenpoint air since the 1950s at 30 million gallons, or three times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Greenpoint, you should know, is what we see on the other side of the river, left of Williamsburg – what they’re breathing, we’re breathing ten minutes later. Reps. Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez who released the EPA report, promised they will not stop pressing the issue "until residents are fully informed of all the health risks and the remediation process has been expedited." (The Brooklyn Paper)

Up as if Down on Essex Street. Cuchifritos art/project space presents “Up as if Down”, an exhibition of works by Shara Hughes, Peter Kreider and Moises Saman, which question common conceptions of “reality” as well as what we - individually and collectively - are willing to accept as “real.” 120 Essex Street, Delancey / Rivington (inside the Essex St. Food Market at the South end of the building), 212.420.9202, through October 20.

Bruce Davidson photographs the Lower East Side. In the late 1950s, Bruce Davidson began photographing Manhattan’s Lower East Side. For the next four decades he intermittently documented the neighborhood’s evolution, focusing in the 1970s on the legendary (and now defunct) Garden Cafeteria, which in the 1920s and 30s served as a meeting place for Yiddish writers and intellectuals, and was then frequented by Davidson’s friend and neighbor Isaac Bashevis Singer. Those photographs—which offer variations on Davidson’s perpetual theme of temporality—are now on display at the Jewish Museum, along with Davidson’s 1972 film about Singer, Isaac Singer’s Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko’s Beard. (Nextbook)

Book Party for Cooperative Village, by Frances Madeson. Rapture Café and Books Celebrates the Publication of Cooperative Village With a Very Special, Yet-To-Be Named Cocktail—The Cooperator, The Cooperatini, The Cooperawhat? Rapture Cafe and Books, 200 Avenue A, bet. 12th and 13th. (Jewcy)

Makes us proud to be New Yorkers. Since we believe that any human being should be allowed to live and work wherever the heck they feel like, it goes without saying that we support Governor Spitzer’s plan to give illegal aliens driver licenses. And if you’re a security buff, New York’s homeland security chief, Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Michael Balboni, says the change will improve public safety. Also, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco is outraged at the proposal, saying the policy change could give a terrorist a license to kill – so it’s gotta’ be good. (Fox News)

Velazquez pushes through the Small Business Investment Improvements Act. Introduced by Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), will create a new angel funding initiative and focus more investment into low-income areas and minority-owned businesses, among other initiatives. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, said the bill "improves the climate for investment in small firms, benefiting the nation’s current and future entrepreneurs as well as the neighborhoods that depend on the services they provide.” That’s us. (Inc.com)

New independent commission to monitor the state’s roads, bridges, subways, and utility networks. Good idea, and probably not a minute too soon, what with all the ancient bridges and skyways just begging to collapse during rush hour. "As proposed, the commission could inject a potent new voice into debates over everything from rising electricity rates to the new Second Avenue subway line to construction of a new Tappan Zee bridge." Incidentally, do you, too, get the urge to respond to the name Tappan Zee bridge with, Ja, tappen ich bridge… (NY Times)

Nostalgia watch. In 1962 Louis Katz passed the typesetter exam at The Jewish Daily Forward at its old location, 175 East Broadway on the Lower East Side. Forty-five years later, Mr. Katz is at his same job, though the paper, now a weekly, moved its offices in 1974 to East 33rd Street and now publishes an English supplement in addition to the Yiddish. And so on. (NY Times)

Where grunge meets Canadians. It’s hard to hate the travel piece in yesterday’s Globe & Mail, Where Grunge Meets Glamour. It’s basically about pushing the Bowery Hotel to Canadian tourists, whose dollars just went even with ours vs. the Euro. But writer Alex Bozikovic spent some time on Wikipedia and came back with a solid story. Let’s mug him.

Carlucci Bencivenga, 38. A charismatic artist in media ranging from graffiti, video and new sound to painting and sculpture and a luminary of the Lower East Side arts scene, died Sun., Sept. 2, in his studio on Stanton St. at the age of 38. He apparently died in his sleep and his body was found by friends who were expecting him to take part in the Art Around the Park event around Tompkins Square Park at the HOWL! Festival the following weekend. Artist Anthony Zito noted that in a milieu where drug use was common, Carlucci was a paragon of drug-free living. In case you thought otherwise. (The Villager)

by Jacob Goldman
We have three open houses scheduled for this Sunday, Sep 23, from 11:30am - 1:30pm.

If Sunday is not convenient for you, please give us a call to schedule a private appointment. You can reach us at 212-388-1115 (x100 or x101).

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Friends-Approved!
FDR Drive & Grand Street (East River), #E44473, Open House Sunday Sep 23, 11:30am-1:30pm, 473 FDR Drive, #K707, 2 bed, 1 bath, 1000 s.f., balcony, $679,000, Maint. $719

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Just Around the River Bend!
FDR Drive & Grand Street (East River), #E44492, Open House Sunday Sep 23, 11:30am-1:30pm, 453 FDR Drive (cr. Grand), #C701, 1 bed, 1 bath, 800 s.f., $499,000, Maint. $542

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Space and Views Without Breaking the Bank!
Grand & FDR (East River), #E44490, Open House Sunday Sep 23, 11:30am-1:30pm, 475 FDR Drive (cr. Grand) #L2003, 1 bed, 1 bath, 550 s.f., $395,000, Maint. $368

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Doris Elpin, 212.388.1115 x101