Wigged out over Trump: A demonstration against the 45-story Trump Soho condo-hotel is planned for Sun., March 4, at 1 p.m. at the project’s site, Spring and Varrick Sts. Protesters will call on the city to stop the dubious “condotel” “based on the undeniable evidence of its violating the zoning.” The rally’s sponsors include the SoHo Alliance, Charlton Street Block Association, Vandam St. Block Association and 71 Sullivan St. and 202 Spring St. Owners’ Corp’s.
Scoopy power: After Scoopy hammered the Department of Transportation about it, the “Bleeker” St. sign has finally been replaced with a proper Bleecker St. one at Morton St., Matt Umanov, of guitar-store fame, reports.
Top shot: East Village photojournalist Q. Sakamaki recently won a first-place award in the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Sakamaki won for “People in the News” in the photo-story category for his emotional shots of the Sri Lankan civil war, which he titled “War Without End.” Some of his photos from this entry also ran last year in The Villager, to which Sakamaki frequently contributes, at least whenever he is in town. Sakamaki has also won top awards for The Villager in the past in the annual New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. He will be heading to Amsterdam in a few weeks for the World Press Photo awards ceremony. Asked for the secret behind his gripping pictures, Sakamaki said: “Catch the emotion, with context. Try to make lots of information around the subject — but at the same time make it simple.” In short, don’t get too close or too far away. “It’s very tough, which distance, to figure out which is best for the subject,” he said.
Up in smoke: We hear that this year’s Worldwide Marijuana March for marijuana-legalization rally will be held, not at Battery Park as in recent years, but at Tompkins Square Park. Word is that Dana Beal, of the group Cures not Wars, recently got a permit for the May 6 event and that the march will be terminating in the East Village park…. In addition, Ed Rosenthal, California’s guru of medical marijuana, will be coming to Beal’s 9 Bleecker St. in the first week or two in April to help kick off the opening of the new Yippie Museum. Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale has also been invited. Yippies will be coming from far and wide and bringing memorabilia for the museum’s permanent collection. Rosenthal will also be raising funds for his legal case: He was arrested by the feds after he was contracted by the city of Oakland to grow marijuana starter plants for medical use. We hear High Times magazine has been banned from the event because they stiffed Rosenthal, a former columnist, on payments.
Fast fall: A neighbor e-mails us that Diane von Furstenberg’s former building on W. 12th St. by the West Side Highway is “starting to grow derelict very fast. The window panes above the garage have been knocked out…kind of a disgrace, considering how much it was just bought for.” Von Furstenberg, of course, has new digs on W. 14th St. in the Meat Market.
Anarchists get organized: It sure sounds like an oxymoron to us, but anarchists have organized into a coalition, to oppose the war that is. Called the March 19 Coalition, they will be holding a series of events at Judson Church on the weekend of March 17 and 18, on the eve of the Iraq War’s fourth anniversary. The days will feature civil-disobedience training and art shows, while evenings will be devoted to performances and speakers. The coalition includes the War Resisters League, Time’s Up! and the New York Metropolitan Area Anarchists. March 19 will see civil disobedience actions in the Wall St. area.
