••• Truffles Tribeca is feeling frisky for Valentine’s Day. This week, it held a special ladies-only class: “Would you like to add a little extra sizzle to your step in time for Valentine’s Day? Well please join us [...] as Gabrielle Valliere, Senior Instructor at New York Pole Dancing and 2011 2nd place winner of the United Stated Pole Dance Federation National Championship hosts our annual Exotic Dance class. [...] Don’t forget to bring a little something extra to ‘strip’ off. (High heels are suggested, but optional.)”

••• From the NYPD’s 1st Precinct: “Here is a link to download the Crime Stoppers poster for the residential Burglary Pattern in Soho. Please send it out to all your contacts.”

••• Women’s fitness-clothing store Lolë has begun hosting free events on Thursdays from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The next two are yoga-related; you can sign up through the Facebook page.

••• Thanks to everyone who heard my plea to get to 1,000 “likes” on Facebook! (Actually, thanks to those who acted on it. The rest of you are bums.)

••• A reader sent in this photo of the impressive lines at the new WFC food truck clusterfudge (my love for rhyme is being trumped by the urge not to swear—for now). I do hope they managed to get their lunch before the giant thumb crushed them.

••• Midtown Lunch got the full list of food trucks coming to the World Financial Center, at North End and Vesey: Up to five “trucks will be there seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through 2013. [...] There are some new and old faces represented here on the food side: Big D’s Grub Truck, Bongo Brothers, Eddie’s Pizza, Frites N Meats, Gorilla Cheese, Kimchi Taco, Mexico Blvd., Mexicue, Mike N Willie’s, Milk Truck, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Rickshaw Dumplings, Schnitzel & Things, Taim Mobile and Valducci’s Pizza. And they didn’t forget the desserts with Andy’s Italian Ice, Coolhaus, Cupcake Crew, La Bella Torte, the Treats Truck and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream represented.”

••• “On one of the most secluded streets in the heart of Tribeca, six luxury condominium units will quietly hit the market today and nine more in the same building will follow shortly. They make up all the units in a five-story condominium project at 60 Collister Street, between Hubert and Laight streets, at the former American Express Carriage House building. VE Equities, the developers behind Tribeca’s 471 Washington Street, which sold out last month, and One North Moore [and the upcoming 11 N. Moore], acquired the site in a short sale last year and received attorney general approval to market the units this Tuesday.” —The Real Deal

••• The Daytonian in Manhattan blog takes a long, fascinating look at the history of 121 Hudson, a.k.a. the Castree Building. If you like New York City history, it’s a must.

••• Two updates on the coat-drive question: “Janovic on Spring and 6th participates in a coat drive every year,” says Anna. And this from Kellee: “Just walked by the 1st Precinct police station (Beach & Varick) and they are doing a coat drive. Drop off right inside.”

••• “Do you know if the fine folks collecting compost will be continuing to operate through the winter at the Saturday Greenmarket?” asked reader Heather Church. “It would be a shame to lose them.” The word is that compost will continue through February: “It’s all based on donations and funding so the date keeps getting pushed forward,” says the Greenmarket rep. (Heather also had this to say: “Tribeca has not been a big contributor. Consider urban composting. Drop off is at the north end of the Saturday Greenmarket.”)

••• It turns out that Super Linda may not be opening till January (with a few private events before then).

••• From reader Hudson River: “About 10 a.m., a large group of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators moved into the Winter Garden and began a loud protest, dancing, drumming and chanting, unfurling their banner from the south balcony. (Sorry I don’t have any pix of that; I considered finishing my hot chocolate to be of greater importance and was too close to get any good pix.) [A reporter after my own heart!] After 10 minutes or so, they started moving out of the Winter Garden and I took the escalator to the balcony, where I could see people being handcuffed, some of them after being wrestled to the floor. Then the police came along and told everyone to leave the balcony so I walked around past the staircase. The police were congregating at the foot of the staircase and eventually they told everyone to leave that area too.” Here are Hudson River’s pix, taken after the crowd had dispersed but as the police were making arrests:

••• “A rotating group of five trucks per day—possibly including the popular Wafels & Dinges, Mexicue, Frites ‘N’ Meats and more —will soon park near the World Financial Center to serve lunch crowds hungry for more dining options.” Maybe the methadone clinic could go the truck route…. —DNAinfo

••• “W New York Downtown [had] its first-ever rock concert on Wednesday evening, but raised more than a few hackles among local residents kept awake by noise levels during sound testing on Tuesday and the concert on Wednesday. The event [...] took place in a temporary, plastic tent behind the hotel without more than a few hours advance notification.” —Broadsheet Daily

••• Regarding that last item, there was this fascinating bit from BatteryPark.TV: “The Financial District, Tribeca, and Battery Park City have few places for the citizens to enjoy good music, drinks, and New York class society. The main problem is that the local press consists of Fuddy-duddy people who have zero interest in promoting this culture.” I prefer curmudgeonly.

••• Tribeca Tap House is open. I’ve reached out to write something longer, which may or may not happen. Not sure it needs the publicity: I stopped by last night around 7 p.m. and it was packed.

••• The leaner, meaner Battery Park City Authority will host a town hall at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17 at P.S. 276 (55 Battery Pl.)

••• The event space at 56 Walker appears to be going as the Boom Room. So it’s like the famous Boom Boom Room, but with half the Boom?

••• Speaking of signs: I guess one of the benefits of having a sign company is that you can whip new ones up for holidays.

•••Torly Kid is doing its candy drive again this year: Bring in excess Halloween candy anytime through Nov. 22, and you’ll get good karma (it goes to charity) and 10% off in the store.

••• A dispatch from reader Hudson River: “Blue Planet Grill at Albany and Greenwich opened Tuesday. We had a nice dinner there tonight—very good seafood pasta with lobster sauce and my carnivore other half had a chicken kebab which he says was good but not exactly a kebab with nice fries.” The menu is here if you want to take a look. “Also, SouthWest NY in the World Financial Center is closed and not opening at their new Albany and South End space until January.”

••• It looks like nothing is coming to 279 Church anytime soon, if the new “for rent” signs are any indication.

I saw a piece on CNN.com that says a monument to the special forces soldiers who rode with the Northern Alliance to attack the Taliban immediately after 9/11 is going to be installed on private property directly across from Ground Zero on Veterans Day this year. I can think of only a few places at fit the bill—Zuccotti Park (!), in the traffic island in front of 7 WTC (is that public or owned by Silverstein Properties?), or on the narrow lawn alongside the West Street side of the WFC (which seems like a bad place for a major statue and probably is BPC land, not private). I couldn’t find any details even though this is less than a month away. Can you help solve the mystery?

An 18-foot bronze monument of soldiers on horseback that’ll be unveiled “with the help of New York City firefighters, police officers, other emergency responders and Port Authority members”—and yet no one seems to know about it? That is indeed a mystery.

Sculptor Douwe Blumberg knows, of course, but he’s not talking. (That’s him in the photo, by the way, and the photo is his.) As per the CNN item, the patrons behind the artwork don’t want their identities revealed, and they’d prefer not to say much about the work just yet. (Why they allowed CNN to cover it is another mystery.) Blumberg agreed to pass along a message but I never heard back.

“The statue will be installed on private property, owned by a supportive firm, close to ground zero,” says CNN. Note that “close”—the article also says “across,” but not “directly,” so we could be talking about anywhere.

The folks at Downtown Alliance hadn’t heard about it, nor had Community Board 1. I asked the CB1 rep whether a monument going on private land would have to come before CB1, and he said no—permanent art in a privately owned public space such as Zuccotti Park, however, would require approval by the city planning commission. Of course, Zuccotti has some issues right now.

The plaza in front of 7 World Trade strikes me as a stretch, given that a Jeff Koons work is already there. On the other hand, it meets every other criteria. I only got around to emailing Silverstein Properties last night, and the rep replied that she didn’t know about it but she’d ask around.

I did email Brookfield Office Properties about Zuccotti and the World Financial Center, but I never heard back. I emailed the 9/11 Memorial, which I figured might be in on the unveiling ceremony, but they said they didn’t have any information and that I might try contacting the Port Authority (I did, to no response). I called the Battery Park City Authority—an unlikely prospect, seeing as how it feels about art funded by anonymous donors. [Crickets.]

Does anyone know anything? This is where being a blogger (vs. a reporter) isn’t helpful, because I don’t have the contacts a traditional reporter does. What I do have, however, is no shame in asking the world at large for help. So if you have details about where this art is headed, please email me at tribecacitizen@gmail.com. As always, tips are anonymous unless you specify otherwise.

UPDATE NOV. 11: The New York Times has all the details: “One of the guest stars in the Veterans Day Parade on Friday is a 5,000-pound statue that just arrived in New York and still needs a permanent home. The statue, a 16-foot-tall bronze of a Special Forces soldier on horseback, may wind up in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan once the protesters camped there depart. But for now, it is bound for a temporary spot in a building a block from the World Trade Center site. [...] it will go to a lobby of 1 World Financial Center, a building owned by Brookfield Office Properties, the company that owns Zuccotti Park. Brookfield had considered placing the statue in the park, before the Occupy Wall Street crowd descended on that plaza in mid-September, said Bill White, who helped arrange the creation of the statue. But that idea would have required approval by city officials. Melissa Coley, a spokeswoman for Brookfield, said, “We’re pleased to provide a temporary home” for the statue. Mr. White said the statue’s sponsors hoped it would eventually reside at the World Trade Center, but Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said no decision had been made.”

Recent “Nosy Neighbor” posts:
• Who’s Moving into 151 Hudson?
• What’s going on at 172 Duane?
• Where is Compose’s pastry chef cooking now?
• What’s up with those Verizon carts?
• Where was the original Blues Bar?
• Who are the guys in the geeky pants?
• Why are the windows above Ponte’s boarded up?
• Can we walk on the West Street medians?
• What’s going on in 157 Hudson?
• What’s the new painting at 153 Hudson?
• What’s up with 55 Warren/55 Murray?
• What is this P.C. Richard & Son Theater I keep hearing about?
• What’s the story behind the lights at 289 Church?
• What’s the Dream House at 275 Church?
• How come every every film and TV shoot seems to have a trailer with doors marked “Lucy” and “Desi”?

••• “Even Hugh Jackman is not immune to the fickleness of fame. On Sunday, the Real Steel star opened his new coffee shop—Laughing Man, on Duane St. in Tribeca—with his wife and children. At first things went well. Jackman flashed his movie-star smile as he greeted guests, and photographers eagerly clicked—until word got out that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was across the street at the Duane [sic] Hotel. Then they abandoned the actor en masse to go shoot the pol. That’s got to hurt.” Across the street? It’s as if the New York Daily News has never been here. P.S. I heard Kerry popped into Torly Kid.

••• “Come November, all the stores and restaurants in the hallway that connects the Liberty Street entrance of Two World Financial Center to the Winter Garden will close. The same fate awaits all the establishments in the second-floor corridor above. Brookfield Properties is set to begin its $250-million renovation of the World Financial Center, beginning with the construction of a new second-floor dining terrace facing the Esplanade, along with a food marketplace where the first-floor corridor is now. The work is scheduled to finish in spring, 2013. Between now and the project’s completion, Brookfield anticipate occasional closures of the first-floor hallway, as well as the elevators/escalators that provide access to the second floor.” —Broadsheet Daily

••• Chef Ed Cotton is leaving Plein Sud; no replacement has been named. —Eater

••• T Magazine on Ted Muehling’s new store at 52 White: “It’s the kind of neighborhood place, Muehling points out, where you can walk in and they’ll make a new wire for your earring if you don’t mind waiting 20 minutes.” Also: I had no idea Muehling’s partner is Mats Gustafson. I’ve loved his art since I started working in magazines. I really should stop by, but I threw a minor hissyfit when Muehling opened a temp space on Walker, and I haven’t had the cojones to go back.

••• Taïm is opening on Mulberry, next to sister restaurant Balaboosta, which is at least closer) than the one on Waverly. I’ll say it again: Open here! —Eater

••• “Governors Island will close for construction on Fridays for the next two seasons [which means years, right?], but will remain open on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays.” —DNAinfo

••• “Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters—emboldened by officials backing down this morning from evicting them from their Zuccotti Park campsite for a 7 a.m. cleaning—stormed Wall Street, leaping over barriers and getting into a fracas with cops.” —New York Post

••• “Penny Chaipis, an actress Off Off Broadway in the mid-1970s, and founder of a Tribeca travel agency next to where her late husband, Tom Chaipis, ran Magoo’s, a bar and restaurant, died Sept. 17 in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, hospital. She was 72.” (The Villager)

••• This item on some celebrity website called Digital Spy made me laugh out loud: “Laughing Man’s first coffee shop is scheduled to open in New York suburb Tribeca later this month.”

••• “With all the anguish over businesses leaving the World Financial Center, it’s nice to point out an entrepreneur who has returned. In January 1989, Dennis Corpora, a licensed optician, joined Optometric Arts in One World Financial Center. That business closed after 9/11. Mr. Corpora opened his own shop, Harborside Optical, just across the Hudson in the Harborside Financial Center. Still, he says, “My goal always was to get back to the World Financial Center, because I loved it here.” That goal became a reality in November, 2010 when he opened World Optical next to Ann Taylor.” —Broadsheet Daily

••• “One hopes that Conventional Wisdom has enough self-confidence to shrug off the many times that people just ignore it. Sales like that of the Manhattan loft #5W at 430 Greenwich Street might cause an insecure person to doubt themselves, after that loft found a buyer at a tiny discount from ask after sitting on the market for 6 months at the same price. (Conventional Wisdom, of course, is that a loft that has been professionally exposed to The Market for a few months needs a price change to attract a buyer.)” —Manhattan Loft Guy

••• The New York Times ran a review of managing editor (and Tribecan) Jill Abramson’s book about her dog. They hired an outsider to write it, as per usual, but what writer on earth is going to pan a book by the chief of the NYT? Maybe the author of Marley & Me can afford to piss important people off, but still….

SUNDAYS
Tribeca Grand sent over info on last week’s free screening (Boardwalk Empire‘s second season premiere) too late for the last Coming Up roundup, but you should know that the hotel does something like that every Sunday night. Sometimes it’s a TV show, sometimes it’s a movie; it’s always free (and you can buy drinks).

OCTOBER 1, 8, 15
Apexart is hosting “mini-concerts every Saturday from 3–4 p.m. during the course of the current show ‘Private Stash: A Musician’s Eye,’ curated by jazz pianist Fred Hersch. Fred hand selected some of his students to play on the baby grand now residing in our space.”

OCTOBER 4
Hairdresser to the stars Carrie White (profiled last week in the New York Times) is at Barnes & Noble Tribeca pushing her new book, Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood Life. Simon & Schuster publicist Paul Olseweski has graciously agreed to give books to the first four folks who DM him on Twitter (@paulieolsewski). Love the slashes cut into the jacket.

OCTOBER 4
“The music of Thelonius Monk will be celebrated in Monk at 94, a free mini-marathon showcasing solo performances by an eclectic lineup of piano virtuosos at the World Financial Center Winter Garden. Participants include the internationally acclaimed Cuban-born classical pianist Adonis Gonzalez; pianist and composer Jed Distler, a fixture in New York’s new-music scene and host of WQXR’s keyboard show Hammered!; rising Cuban jazz star Alex Tosca, whose Latin-infused flair has won him work with such acts as The Roots and Parliament/Funkadelic; and a variety of other virtuosos.” Oh, I love Thelonius Monk. If you’ve never read the Monk passage in Geoff Dyer’s But Beautiful, do yourself a favor. Here’s a part that someone transcribed—it’s not the part I love the most, but so what: “Part of jazz is the illusion of spontaneity and Monk played the piano as though he’d never seen one before. Came at it from all angles, using his elbows, taking chops at it, rippling through the keys like they were a deck of cards, fingers jabbing at them like they were hot to the touch or tottering around them like a woman in heels—playing it all wrong as far as classical piano went. Everything came out crooked, at an angle, not as you expected. If he’d played Beethoven, sticking exactly to the score, just the way he hit the keys, the angle at which his fingers touched the ivory, would have unsteadied it, made it swing and turn around inside itself, made it a Monk tune.”

OCTOBER 7–28
“Hionas Gallery is pleased to present ‘Undefined,’ an exhibition of new large-scale pastel drawings from Tun Ping Wang. Wang’s haunting portraits reflect the artist’s fascination with the imperfect beauty of faces, and how the emotions, experiences and mental states of his subjects are imposed by the viewer rather than the artist. The gallery will be holding a public opening reception on Thursday, Oct. 6,  6–8 p.m.”

OCTOBER 15
“Come to Washington Market Park‘s kids gardening event on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. sponsored by The Friends of Washington Market Park in celebration of the city-wide It’s My Park Day. Our park gardener will give a talk to children on how to plant tulip bulbs and seeds for the spring, then the kids will get busy planting. There will be kids’ gloves and trowels for all and lots of bulbs to plant!

OCTOBER 21
At the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center: “An eight-piece, high-energy bluegrass band that combines the harmonies of three spirited female vocalists with the hard driving sound of five musically-gifted musicians on banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass and accordion, the NYCity Slickers are sure to entice bluegrass and music lovers alike. Tickets are $15 each or $10 with the purchase of a ‘Spotlight Subscription.”

"Dill Weed" by Barbara Ciurejand Lindsay Lochman

NOVEMBER 2–DECEMBER 3
“Soho Photo’s November show will feature the winning entries in the Seventh Annual Alternative Processes Competition. The images that were submitted for this competition represent a wide range of alternative methods that can include beeswax paper negative, Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, platinum- palladium, gum dichromate, gold toned salt print, tintype, and ziatype. Also on view: a guest exhibition by Stephanie Lyn Slate that features two bodies of work, Souvenirs and The Inevitable.”

NOVEMBER 7
“The Mark of the Chemist” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, featuring John Turturro and New Yorker critic Joan Acocella, with a soundscape by Marco Cappelli. “Primo Levi’s Holocaust writings (Survival in Auschwitz, The Periodic Table), have always borne the stamp of his training as a chemist. Acclaimed actor John Turturro, who portrayed Levi in the film The Truce, will star in the English premiere of this staged reading inspired by the author’s eloquent scientific works.”

DECEMBER 8
Writer André Aciman—who forever changed the way I think of peaches—is at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: “In his latest book [Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere], novelist and memoirist Aciman (Eight White Nights, Out of Egypt) offers a series of meditations on travel, displacement, and the Alexandria of his youth [...] from beautiful and moving pieces about the memory evoked by the scent of lavender; to musings on cities like Barcelona, Rome, Paris, and New York; to his sheer ability to unearth life secrets from an ordinary street corner.”

DECEMBER 25
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage: “I Lift My Lamp: A Statue-esque Hanukkah.” “Join us for a day of homage to Emma Lazarus and the Lady of the Harbor, featuring Statue-inspired crafts and films including An American Tail, Saboteur, and Ghostbusters II.” Plus: Crafts for kids.