Sunday, November 02, 2008

Update: Recent News

As we're catching up on our blogging, here's a selection of recent news:

Stalin on Cooper Square

The Cooper Union's main building on East Seventh Street is displaying a 1952 Picasso portrait of Stalin, part of an exhibit entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman With Mustache by Lene Berg. The exhibit runs through 6 December. The New York Times notes that Stalin joins the statue of Lenin atop the Red Square building on East Houston Street and links to a 1997 note explaining how that statue got there.

And while you're checking out the Cooper Union exhibit, check out the Slavs of New York East Village walking tour as well!

Hot Kielbasa!

Meanwhile, in Greenpoint… Sikorski Meat Market got busted last month for serving up cocaine when customers ordered “hot kielbasa.” The Brooklyn Eagle reports that 26 defendants now face between 10 years and life in prison. And, it turns out the FBI and NYPD have a Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force operating in the city – who knew?

The Mosque?

Another controversy last month concerned an “ironic” hipster bag produced by Brooklyn Novelty that features Greenpoint, and shows the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration labeled as “The Mosque.” New York Shitty broke the story, and the New York Post followed up with unhappy comments from clerics at the church. The bag remains on sale…

Future of Protection Cathedral

Finally, big changes are afoot at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Curbed reports that the church, currently being considered for landmark designation, is looking to put an eight-storey residential structure above the existing building.

(Cooper Union photo: Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times; Photo of Rev. Wiaczeslaw Krawczuk from the New York Post)

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