By Janel Bladow
May is bursting out all over Downtown and most notably in the South Street Seaport (S3) and Financial District. Are things starting to look less glum? Let’s hope so!
Art & Ale…
Local haunt Meade’s has become a premiere neighborhood hang out – and a place for a bit of culture. Artist/owner Lee Holin, painting since his New York Academy of Art school days, now adorns the old brick walls with his pieces as well as paintings by other local up and comers.
“I have two of my paintings hanging,” Holin told Seaport Report. “I started doing portraits because I got tired of painting graphics and pretty pictures. I felt portraits talked more about me and were more interesting to the viewer and to make. I started this series by painting people I don’t like, people who affected me negatively, past and present. A journal entry goes with each, like an excerpt from a diary. They’re all anonymous, of course!”
Therapeutic we’d say and locals can’t help but trying to guess who’s who! Kind of like a blind item on Page Six! Other works on the walls include those by the graffiti artist who goes by the logo Matt Siren, another N.Y.A.A. grad Barrett Bailey and Lower East Side collagist Anne Olshansky. Holin is looking for more pieces to hang.
“Sort of like Tetris,” he says. “I want to fill all the walls but the art has to be smaller or interesting shapes to fit.” Stop by on Sunday nights for Nintendo Wii Night or Monday Sangria Night from 7 p.m. on. And tell ‘em S.R. sent ya! Check out the new Web site: www.meadesbar.com.
Buds & Bowsers… FishBridge Dog Run is sprucing up this weekend. Looking for help to weed, plant and mulch on Saturday, May 16. Meet up at the run at Pearl and Dover Sts. at 10 a.m. Bring your gloves and shovel!
Yo Ho Ho A Pirate Birthday …
Cora Hume-Fagin celebrated her big sixth birthday in style on April 19. Birthday girl and a dozen friends, including another S3 kid, Maveric Muchowski, boarded the Peking where they walked the plank, pinned the hook on the pirate and hunted for pirate treasures. Fun was followed with, according to Cora, “yummy pizza and yummy birthday cake.” Both Cora’s mom Nancy Hume and dad Gary Fagin said the Seaport Museum staff and Peking crew were welcoming and helpful, and “it’s a great place for a party.” Cora said the highlight was the after party collecting beach glass and treasures on slip of sand under the Brooklyn Bridge. Her favorite present? A great vintage velvet horse painting!
On Another Note… More on Gary Fagin, who conducts the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, which prepares for the final concert of their inaugural season Friday night, May 15. Joining the orchestra in “18th Century Classics” is celebrated Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester as the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A. Maestro Fagin hints that they may drop a note of Duke Ellington into the program. Concert begins at 8 p.m. at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce St.
Making More Music…
Also Friday night, Southbridge Towers resident Ellen McDonald sings up a storm of Gilbert & Sullivan. A member of the Local 802 chorus, McDonald joins 20 Broadway principals, pros and other music enthusiasts to sing all the song of H.M.S. Pinafore. “I’m an alto, so I play a sailor and sing with the boys,” giggles McDonald, who loves songs like “He’s An Englishman.” She explains to S.R. that the conductor is Ralph Zeitlin, her recorder teacher. Show begins at 7:30 p.m. at the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Division of Local 802 (the musicians’ union) Hall, 322 West 48th St. She says all are welcome. “It’s a fun time.”
Hot Night…
Downtowners looking to hook up or just make new friends might want to head to Ulysses on Thursday nights. Big party scene. Great fun crowd. Stone St. is becoming the singles scene for Wall St. workers.
Bright Lights, Cute Kids…
And lastly, Children’s Day is Saturday, June 13, in S3. Lots of fun planned, including a big finale with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Target fireworks at dusk. This will be the only really, really big bang show on the East River this summer so mark your calendars!
seaportreport@DowntownExpress.com
