Volume 79, Number 16 | September 23 - 29, 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

Scoopy's Notebook

Villager’s starring role: Well, we now know for sure that The Villager made the cut for Uma Thurman’s new movie, “Motherhood” — because the newspaper is featured in the trailer for the film, which opens Oct. 16. Also starring Minnie Driver and Anthony Edwards, the flick depicts Thurman’s manic life in Greenwich Village as she tries to plan her young daughter’s birthday party, while trying to keep the passion alive in her marriage. Midway into the trailer — currently playing at a movie theater near you — Thurman tells hubby Edwards over breakfast that he should really appreciate what “a consummate multitasker” she is, while Edwards nonchalantly leafs through The Villager’s 75th anniversary issue from April 23, 2008. Shown on the paper’s front page is Elisabeth Roberts’s fantastic photo of Reverend Lloyd Prator, of St. John’s Church in the Village, shpritzing Gyppy, a 17-year-old American rat terrier — who belongs to Hector Rosado — with holy water on Rogation Sunday. Thurman is also seen in a local playground (maybe Bleecker St. Playground) and exiting a supermarket laden with shopping bags (we’re thinking possibly Gourmet Garage on Seventh Ave. by the look of the facade). The movie seems to be at least somewhat inspired by real life, since Thurman lives in Greenwich Village and had two children with ex Ethan Hawke. ... Thanks to another Villager photog, Robert Kreizel, who gave us the heads up after seeing the trailer at the Union Square movie theater.


Bad news for bears: It’s been a punishing several weeks for the S&M leather bears as they’ve been on tenterhooks not knowing whether they would be able to throw their annual bondage-themed bash in the Meat Market. On Tuesday, Robert Valin, director of the West Village Leather and Bear Street Fair, broke the news to us that he planned to call the whole thing off. Valin said, after weeks of being left in limbo, the Mayor’s Office last week O.K.’d their annual street fair for Little W. 12th St. between Washington St. and Tenth Ave. But with just three weeks before the event, slated for Columbus Day weekend, Valin said — even with the offer of the alternative street — there wasn’t time to whip everything together for a top-notch BDSM bear fair. Community Board 2 initially recommended approval for the leather fest for W. 13th St., next to Andre Balazs’s new Standard Hotel, back in May or June; but then Valin heard from the Mayor’s Office that the fetish fest clashed with the “image” of the hotel — whose exhibitionistic guests have been getting naked and flashing folks on the High Line. But eventually it became clear the real issue was that the bears were unwanted by the four-day Wine and Food Festival, which has the Standard as its hotel H.Q. Valin said he’s not looking to blame anyone for the bad news for the bears — not the Mayor’s Office, Balazs or Annie Washburn, executive director of the Meatpacking District Initiative, who has been organizing the effort behind the foodie fest. He said the bears just hope to get Little W. 12th St. next year. “It really hurts that it’s the Meat Market,” Valin reflected of this year’s snafu. “The gay leather men put that place on the map.” Washburn said of the bear fair’s fate, “I’m really sorry that happened — and I had nothing to do with it.” Asked if the bondage bears can use the street next year, she said, “We’ll definitely be here — [the Wine and Food Festival] is an annual event. But we will welcome [Valin] to be here on Little W. 12th St. — next year, definitely. I hope that next year we can all work together and coordinate.” Washburn, who is on C.B. 2, said it slipped by her in the spring when the board unanimously approved the leather fair for W. 13th St. Valin said Leather Weekend won’t be a total wash: There will be a Rooftop Bear Barbecue and Beer Blast at The Delancey, 168 Delancey St. at Clinton St., Sat., Oct. 10, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.


Kurland’s course? Will Yetta Kurland do what some supporters of Maria Passannante-Derr would like her to do and run against Christine Quinn as an independent in November — with, hopefully, the full backing of Passannane-Derr and all her supporters? When reached last week, Kurland said she hadn’t yet had discussions with Passannante-Derr’s camp about a possible run in the general election. “I haven’t spoken to anybody about it, so I don’t know what could and couldn’t happen, what should and shouldn’t happen,” she said. “It’s not even something I’ve considered or thought about or spoken to people about.” However, the idea reflects some voters’ continued hope that Quinn could still be defeated, Kurland added. “It shows a real desire on the part of the community for change. Even though we were running as opponents against each other,” she said of Passannante-Derr, “it’s a nice thing to say, because it shows support and mutual regard between these two campaigns.”... As for what is in Kurland’s future, however, don’t expect to see her on a community board anytime soon. Although the boards are typically a launching pad for careers in local politics, Kurland says that won’t be her path. “I don’t want to serve on a community board,” she stated definitely in a post-election interview. “Community boards are good, necessary, important. I will listen to the community board, I will work with the community board. [But] that is not my forte; that is not what I will ever do. I would be in the streets observing a rally or creating a school, or doing other things.”


To blog — or not to blog? Photographer-turned-blogger Bob Arihood has been chronicling the goings-on along Avenue A at Seventh St. outside Ray’s Candy Store for as long as we can remember. His Neither More Nor Less page features the never-ending adventures — sometimes comic, sometimes violent — of a rotating cast of neighborhood characters, including the likes of Mosaic Man, Biker Billy, L.E.S. Jewels, Hot Dog, The Groper and countless others, as well as breaking-news reports on local crime and other doings. Arihood’s been hanging at the spot since back in 1984, when he started just drinking beer and smoking cigarettes there, and he’s seen it all. But he recently confided to us that he’s not sure if he can keep it up much longer — that the pressure of producing new material for the blog has become intense. When he’s got a hot story, his site might get 20,000 hits and it’s gratifying. But on slower days N.M.N.L. might only get 300 hits, and it’s a letdown. Arihood revealed to us he’s already got the blog’s final entry all set — and that it’s merely a matter of time before he pulls the plug on Neither More Nor Less. So then, does it all end with a shot of Jim Power, a.k.a. Mosaic Man — Arihood’s first subject on the blog back when he started it three years ago? Nope, he answered. Hmm, then perhaps a photo finale of L.E.S. Jewels in full-moon flagrante (i.e., dropping trow in the middle of Avenue A as he’s wont to do)? Or maybe a smiling Ray sticking his head out of his window and singing out, “Hello-o-oh brotha!” Arihood wasn’t saying. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see — but we hope not anytime soon. Where else would we be able to see such classic photos as Arihood’s recent image of an ornery-looking Biker Billy scowling into the camera and baring his head tattoo after two buddies gave L.E.S. Jewels no less than his third beat-down of the day? You see, Jewels had caused Billy to fall down, breaking his pelvis, which not only landed Billy in the hospital, but made him miss his interview to get Section 8 housing... . Anyway, it’s a long story...and it’s all on Arihood’s blog.


Corrections: Last week in our roundup of Democratic primary elections, The Villager incorrectly stated that John Liu and Bill de Blasio had won the comptroller and public advocate races, respectively. But because neither first-place candidate reached the threshold of 40 percent of the vote, each will have a runoff election Sept. 29 against the second-place candidate, with Liu facing David Yassky and de Blasio versus Mark Green. ... An item in our police blotter last week mistakenly reported that a suspect in the tragic mistaken-identity murder of Glenn Wright, 21, on the Lower East Side lives in Park West Village on the Upper West Side. The suspect resides on W. 92nd St., but that’s a few blocks south of Park West Village.