Volume 76, Number 31 Dec. 27 - Jan. 2, 2007
Editorial/ Op-Ed
Some wishes for the new year
With the end of the year fast approaching, our thoughts naturally turn to the ongoing and unmitigated tragedy that the Iraq war has become for the Iraqi people, the Middle East, America and the rest of the world.
Talking Point
James Bond: A hero for (what remains) of Bush era?
By Robert F. Moss
While Ian Fleming insisted that the James Bond thrillers were nothing more than “fairy tales for adults,” the critics have steadfastly refused to believe him. At the height of the Bond craze in the 1960s, anthropologists of popular culture used 007 as evidence of everything that was vital — or vile — about Western society, whether it was pugnacious anti-Communism, primal male fantasies, gun fetishism or runaway consumerism.
Police Blotter
Letter to the Editor
Scoopy's Notebook
Scene
Villager photo by Tequila Minsky
Thompson St. bust
Le Corset lingerie shop had to close on Thompson St. earlier this month and used its mannequins to hold the parking space for the moving truck. Combined with Barolo restaurant’s mural next door, it made for one very alluring street.
In Briefs
WK, and lots of street art, in the house
Holiday spirits
Obituary
Albert Wade, 83, painter whose style became ‘dreamlike realism’
By Albert Amateau
Albert Wade, a painter who lived and worked in his Chelsea studio on Seventh Ave. for more than 45 years, died Dec. 14 at the age of 83.
Joannie Chen, 37, photographer for medical and corporate clients
By Albert Amateau
Joannie M. Chen, a freelance photographer whose work included special events, corporate and medical subjects, died Dec. 2 at the age of 37.
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A rendering of how Pier 40’s south side would be transformed in the Pier 40 Performing Arts Center plan; four restaurants, at right, would border a plaza sporting a farmers’ market, at left, in warm weather and an ice-skating rink in winter.
‘People’s Pier’ vs. Performing Arts Center pitched for Pier 40
By Lincoln Anderson
A glitzy “Downtown Lincoln Center” on the Hudson — with stilt-walking Cirque du Soleil performers clomping over soccer fields adding festive atmosphere to the Tribeca Film Festival’s new maritime home — or a teeming sports, day-camp and academic complex devoted to building healthy young bodies and minds, are the two competing redevelopment proposals for Pier 40.
 Enjoying the Christmas spirit on Christopher St.
By Noah Fowle
Vanessa Smith and her son Rocky had all the accouterments of a normal Christmas Eve at their humble tree stand on Hudson and Christopher Sts.
Artists told to pay rent
By Albert Amateau
A panel convened by the American Arbitration Association on Dec. 14 awarded Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center a total of $33,660 in back rent from artists — members of Artists Alliance Inc. — who failed to pay C.S.V. rent for their studios at 107 Suffolk St.
Young designer mixes faith and fashion in her lines
By Kristen V. Brown
The walls of Sarah Musa’s cramped, two-bedroom Bleecker St. apartment are covered in clothing sketches and fabric samples, but her roommate doesn’t mind.
 Shoe design find in an unlikely spot on St. Mark’s
By Meagan Brant
Shoehorned between a sunglasses. vendor and a tattoo shop is one of New York City’s tiniest shoe repair shops — and a design find. Prized by penny pinchers and shoe mavens, East Village Shoe Repair is known for its willingness to execute customers’ most fanciful shoe designs, at rock-bottom prices.
Arts and Entertainment
 Bohemian dreaming
By Jerry Tallmer
The ’60s. You remember the ’60s. And if you don’t, there’s a fellow named Fred McDarrah whose evocative, time-binding photographs of hundreds of artists, writers, and other hell-raisers of the New York scene in the 1960s — actually from the late ’50s into the ’70s — will, at this guess, set you aching to have once been part of that scene yourself.
A riveting ride, without a road map
By Vivienne Leheny
You find yourself onstage in front of an expectant audience. You don’t know the play or your lines or even who your character is. You’re trapped in a paralyzing mystery. It’s the Actor’s Nightmare.
Sports
 Kids can be kids again during structured free play
By Judith Stiles
At first glance, the term “structured free play” seems like an oxymoron. However, city kids are getting a welcome dose of it during the holiday break from Christmas to New Year’s Day.
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NEWS
St. Vincent’s prognosis may include new building
By Albert Amateau
St. Vincent’s Hospital, the medical center serving the West Side for more than 150 years, has begun a dialogue with Village community leaders about plans for a major reorganization and modernization program.
Before Oi! there was Oy! Punk’s Jewish roots
By Bonnie Rosenstock
Take a fistful of New York attitude, more than a dash of kvetching, irony, humor and sarcasm; throw in the memory of the Holocaust and aspiring to assimilate; blend with lefty politics and social justice; stir up youthful disaffection, outsider status and rejection of your parents’ and society’s values, and you’ve got the makings of a movement.
Rain or shine, Chelsea Bird Lady tends to her flock
By Lawrence Lerner
On a Tuesday afternoon in early December, as dusk threatened to cut short the crisp winter day, Marie Palladino walked with a determined stride and eagle-eyed glare down 13th St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves.
Neighbors besieged by Cooper Square construction
By Albert Amateau
A roomful of angry East Village neighbors last week told public officials and developers’ representatives that they were fed up with the disruption and the fear of continued problems associated with four development projects in a four-block radius at Cooper Square.
 Twilight for old Limelight as owner shops mall idea
By Lawrence Lerner
The owner of the former Episcopal church that once housed the Limelight nightclub and is now home to Avalon wants to turn the building into a mini-mall.
Protesters on Oaxaca go to Rocka
By Jefferson Siegel
On Friday night, about 40 demonstrators gathered in front of the Mexican Consulate on E. 39th St to protest ongoing government oppression in Oaxaca, Mexico, where in late October Indymedia reporter Brad Will was shot and killed by government-affiliated paramilitaries while filming civil unrest.
Getting Fifi to finance abandoned mutts’ care
By Lori Haught
Animal Haven celebrated the opening of its new Soho space with a gala event on Dec. 12.
 New Year’s Eve with the king of the hill
By Will McKinley
Murray Hill hopes that 2006 will be remembered as his breakthrough year. After a decade of dues-paying, the comedian, emcee and self-annointed “hardest working middle-aged man in showbiz” wowed the crowds in London, appeared in the controversy-drenched film “Shortbus” and made his national television debut hosting Logo TV’s “Queer Year in Showbiz.”
Koch on film
By Ed Koch
“The Good German” (-) Although this film was slammed by other critics, I decided to see it. I was hoping to see Berlin in the ’60s, when the Soviets erected the wall dividing the country, and hoped even more that the movie would create the intrigue of “The Third Man,” starring the genius actor and director Orson Welles.
“The Secret Life of Words” (+) Though occasionally inexplicable, this film, written and directed by the Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet, is on the whole very poignant and rewarding.
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