![]() ![]() Jeannette Catsoulis reviewed in The New York Times: Rat Fink and Roth are featured in Ron Mann's documentary film Tales of the Rat Fink (2006). Sloane and Steve Fiorilla, who illustrated Roth's catalogs. Other artists associated with Roth also drew the character, including Rat Fink Comix artist R. Rat Fink continues to be a popular item to this day in hot rod and Kustom Kulture circles in the form of T-shirts, key chains, wallets, toys, decals, etc. The initial run of the kit was from 1963 to 1965, but the Rat Fink kit, along with Roth's other creations, has been re-issued by Revell over the years. Also in 1963, the Revell Model Company issued a plastic model kit of the character. The ad called it "The rage in California". Rat Fink was advertised for the first time in the July 1963 issue of Car Craft. His T-shirt designs inspired an industry. ![]() By the August 1959 issue of Car Craft, "weirdo shirts" had become a craze, with Ed Roth at the forefront of the movement. ![]() 96 Tears aims to be the downtown rock’n’roll bar that dreams are made of - a warm convivial place to meet, drink, talk, get lost, and let loose in an unpretentiously authentic yet unapologetically eccentric atmosphere.ĩ6 Tears, at 110 Ave A, is now open from 6pm to 2am on weekdays and 6pm - 4am Thursday through Saturday.Roth began airbrushing and selling "weirdo" T-shirts at car shows and in the pages of hot rod publications such as Car Craft in the late 1950s. The cozy lower level, 96 Tears’ Cabin Down Below, offers a similar sound and decor but in a dark intimate candle-lit atmosphere. While wallet-friendly beer and well drinks will be available, the star of the show is the craft cocktail menu with playful names that reference the broad majesty of rock’n’roll subculture - Funky But Chic, Sally Can’t Dance, The Goo Goo Muck, etc. The upstairs of this wood-paneled double-decker wonder bar is illuminated by the glow and raw analog rumble of an original 1973 Seeburg Matador 45 jukebox stocked with a mix of classic rock’n’roll by the likes of Link Wray, The Sonics, The Ronettes, Little Richard, and The Stooges mixed with obscurities from the 1950s to the 1970s. The walls and shelves of the 96 Tears bar realize Howie’s dream as they’re adorned with his original posters, tchotchkes, and other extraordinary artifacts like the original promotional fruit company ashtray he discovered Andy Warhol lifted for The Velvet Underground & Nico LP cover (and wrote about in Dangerous Minds ), the “Free Sid Vicious” shirt that punk’s original poster child left at Howie’s apartment before his legendary demise, the original art Ed “Big Daddy” Roth “Rat Fink” gifted Pyro (who penned his 1992 biography Confessions of a Rat Fink), a gold record The Ramones presented to Howie for their debut LP, a Dead Boys bass case that became his own, and an unimaginable array of other authentic subcultural wonders from across the edges of the 20th Century subterrain that found their way into Howie’s orbit. Though eventually also known for his hoarding and collecting, Pyro generously shared his knowledge with generations of disciples and wanted to make these exquisite curiosities accessible to all - eventually scheming to exhibit them as nightlife decor. This downtown legend and member of original 1977 CBGB punks The Blessed, glam punk innovators D-Generation, and rock stars Danzig, who then became a prolific professional deep cuts vinyl DJ, spent half-a-century ravenously exploring a rainbow of subcultures and accumulating weird and wonderful objects as souvenirs along the way. Howie Pyro was a world-renowned DJ, musician, collector, archivist, historian, and writer who was a ubiquitous vital force in the bicoastal punk, proto-goth, garage, R&B, drag, monster, and cinema scenes for decades. Savvy neighbors looking for the elusive remnants of why they moved to the East Village in the first place, plus fellow travelers adventuring from the greater metropolitan area and around the globe, lack a hangout with a decor, soundtrack, and spirit that embodies the unconventional cultural history that made downtown internationally famous. While it's no secret that chain stores, condos, and exclusive rent have changed the East Village significantly in the 21st Century, downtown, still also inhabited by both veteran and new subterranean denizens, art galleries, music venues, decades-old dining institutions, and a tightly-knit community, has long been in need of an uncompromising underground rock and roll bar worthy of its quirky neighborhood mythology. Its where Allen Ginsberg photographed Jack Kerouac peering into its barroom window in 1953 and where NYC hardcore punk was born in the early 80s and where notable downtown bohemian regulars like Joe Strummer (who is muralized along the side) have been drinking since it became Niagara in 1997. ![]() The building at the corner of 7th and Avenue A has a subcultural history going back decades. ![]()
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