Eastern Europe

Hava Nagila: The Movie Makes Big Tzimmes About Being Jewish

Debo Band

Publishers Fight Back Against Schoolbook Piracy

Textbook torrents

A Whisper to a Roar

Family Portrait in Black and White

Happy Hour at Vyne

Sometimes life calls for a glass of wine. Vyne in the West Village focuses on white varietals, and has a particularly interesting selection from Eastern Europe. They have happy hour until 7pm every day. Get your hands on their Gruner Veltliner, Nero d' Avola, Cava Rose, or Six Point for just $5. Jus ... More >>

Kids Who've Been Bullied Can Now Get Money!

This is a great idea! It Ends Today is a non-profit org that promotes anti-bullying awareness in schools and communities by giving scholarships to students who talk publicly about their experiences with bullying and its effects on them. That might not reduce the trauma, but it does help with the e ... More >>

TreatPetite, Home of All Things Kefir, Coming to Grove Street and Seventh Avenue South

Signage is up at 61 Grove Street (212-414-0222) for TreatPetite, a soon-to-open espresso bar and creperie that will also specialize in kefir, the probiotic beverage made with kefir grains and cow, goat, or sheep's milk.

Kill List

Summer Wine Books Reviewed; Beer and College Football Go Hand-in-Hand

​Eric Asimov reviews four new wine books. He likes Summer in a Glass about the Finger Lakes, An Ideal Wine about Californian wines, and Voodoo Vintners about biodynamics. Less so Naked Wine about natural wines. [NY Times] The Hangar One Vodka blimp, on a six-month promotional tour around the ... More >>

The 2011 Obie Award Winners

The best of the 2010-2011 Off-Broadway theater season

The 2011 Obie Awards Winners List

The best of the Off-Broadway season

2011 OBIES Theater Award Winners: The Complete List

This just in. . . LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD René Buch and Repertorio Español BEST NEW AMERICAN PLAY Kristoffer Diaz, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (includes $1,000 prize)

The Belarus Free Theatre Arrives With Being Harold Pinter, Zone of Silence, and Discover Love

La MaMa and the Public host the return of the now famous troupe

Saro Bistro Seeks Out Grandma's Lost Empire

The Balkans find a new home on the Lower East Side

Didactic Narration Undermines Spiritual Awe in Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Signage Up at Veselka Bowery, Will Open in Late Spring

Lauren ShockeyJust a few months away​A walk down 1st Street today revealed that signage is up for the Bowery outpost of Ukranian restaurant and East Village institution, Veselka. But don't get too excited just yet--opening day is still a couple months off.

Zdravstvuite! Russian Interpreter Surprises Court by Being Himself

Kobina Ampah​It's usually the older, Soviet-era types from Sheepshead Bay who are in court, facing the usual illegal fishing charges. Most need a Russian interpreter. But none expect a lanky, bearded African man to rise to their side. Kobina Ampah, 49, is a professional Ghanaian polyglot, an ... More >>

Terror Plot: DEA Stings Seven in International Scheme to Use Drug Money to Buy Weapons for the Taliban

Seven men alleged to be narcotics and weapons traffickers in West Africa and Eastern Europe have been indicted in federal court in Manhattan for a plot to move tons of heroin and cocaine from Afghanistan to the United States, and using the proceeds to purchase weapons for use by the Taliban, federal ... More >>

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Fox Shoots Man; Murdered Journalist's Ashes Poured into Times Square Subway Grate (Weekend Links)

​Happy Sunday! Enjoy your brunches and precious, precious sleep while you still can. Today will be partly cloudy with a high of 33. There's a joke about "man bites dog" here that I'm not quite coming up with, but yesterday a fox managed to shoot its would-be hunter in Belarus. It escaped ... More >>

Belarus Free Theatre's Being Harold Pinter Is No Slight Ache

The Eastern European Company Makes It Bravely to Under the Radar

Converting to Pour-Over Coffee; More on Chefs & Foraging

​Frank Bruni chronicles his adventures in coffee snobbery in this era of evolved coffee culture. [NY Times] American Jews who also happen to be foodies have been looking to revive old Ashkenazic dishes that originated in Eastern Europe. [NY Times] The chef-owners of Seasonal Restaurant and ... More >>

Polonia to Get Polished to a High Sheen

eatclub.wordpress.com​ With Teresa's and Kiev gone, Polonia is one of the very few remaining outposts of Polish dining in the East Village. And while it won't be going anywhere, exactly, the 24-year-old restaurant is about to undergo a significant facelift.

Bra Functions as Gas Mask: In Case of Emergency, Remove and Apply to Face

via ebbra.com​So, this happened: An actual doctor has created an actual Emergency Bra (in severe-alert red, with lace edging), that you can, in an emergency, cover your face with so as to avoid breathing in toxic dirty bomb fumes, or whatnot. They sell for $29.95 at ebbra.com under the tagline ... More >>

Confirmed: Happy People Are Nicer; Australians Are the Happiest and Nicest

If this was a regular sighting, you'd probably be happy too.​Charities Aid Foundation has taken a look at countries doing charitable things -- giving money, helping a stranger, or volunteering time -- and guess where the U.S.A. ranked? Number five. Which is not horrible, but also maybe not as ... More >>

STRING SEMINAR

The beauty of classical bows and plucks

Ukraine President Face-Smacked by Giant Wreath (Video)

Having a bad day? Here's Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych getting hit in the head with an 8-foot wreath at a memorial service on Monday.

For Passover, Some Gefilte Fish, Out of the Jar and Into the Steamer

Smoked whitefish gefilte fish. Not filthy fish.​ On the Passover Seder table, there are few foods more reviled than gefilte fish. Burdened with the nickname "filthy fish" and typically sourced from glass jars where it's suspended in a viscous, gelatinous sludge, it's been likened to SPAM, ca ... More >>

Slavic Soul Party

LOUD AND PROUD

No one parties like a gypsy

Madonna Tells Off Romanians, Who Tell Her to Get Out and Take Those Filthy Gypsies With Her

​Madonna's world tour seems destined to provoke international incidents. She had already riled Poles by planning to perform on the Feast of the Annunciation, and they retaliated by sending prayer-bombs to kill two of her stagehands. Now Madge has done the unthinkable in Romania: spoken in defe ... More >>

Come and See

The Country Teacher's Coming-Out Story

PRETTY WOMEN

Juergen Teller interprets the Ukraine

A Trip Through the Under the Radar Festival

The Whole World in Our Hands

Activist fest takes on global warming, suburban sprawl and, as if war weren't enough, AIDS in Iraq

'Orange Winter'

New(ish) Stuff

Go Big Green

Under a storied tent, Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

Letters

The Orange Revolution's Message

You can help free a Cuban prisoner of conscience from a windowless underground cell

Paper Clips

Letters

Breaking Silence

A military court, an alleged rape victim, and the question of reporters' rights

Black Sea Intrigue

Ukraine takes everyone's eyes off Iraq, keeps Russkies off-balance

Into The Outlands

Central Asia's Lost Worlds

A War on Love

The Lost World

Still Hungary