SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Lil Phat. Source: Facebook

Russian-born gangster and famous turncoat Mani Chulpayev was arrested yesterday on suspicion of ordering the murder of American rapper Lil Phat, according to a report by Ria Novosti.

Melvin Vernell III, aka Lil Phat, was a 19-year-old southern rapper with a promising career. He was gunned down in a parking lot of a hospital while waiting for his child to be born in what authorities described as a planned attack.

“The alleged motive for the murder was drugs and other ‘business’ dealings in which the suspects were involved,” the office of Atlanta’s district attorney, Paul Howard, said in a statement provided to RIA Novosti.

Chulpayev, who came to Brighton Beach from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, got his start in Russian gangs known as “brigades.” After being arrested in 1998, he cooperated with federal officials and helped bring down a slew of Russian mobsters.

He testified to being “the money handler and the scheme organizer” for a crime group that US authorities called the “Gufield-Kutsenko Brigade,” The New York Times reported in 2002.

“I came up with the scams,” Chulpayev testified, the Times reported.

Chulpayev’s decision to turn state’s evidence, which led to dozens of convictions of members of Eurasian crime groups in the United States, so impressed authorities that he was granted time served for his admitted crimes in 2002.

In handing down the sentence, US federal judge Nina Gershon called Chulpayev’s crimes “chilling and inhuman” but said he proved to be “one of the most valuable witnesses in the history of the government’s battle against Russian organized crime,” the New York Daily News reported at the time.

BNA’s office inside the Chase Bank at 1002 Brighton Beach Avenue. Source: Google Maps

In an event that had to be rescheduled to a later date, the Brighton Neighborhood Association (BNA) will be hosting a “Senior Benefits” workshop at 11:00 a.m., February 22 inside BNA’s Chase Office, 1002 Brighton Beach Avenue on the corner of Coney Island Avenue (inside Chase Bank’s Community Center — just come inside, turn left, walk past the tellers, and look for the red sign).

Representatives from the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) will be conducting the meeting and BNA staff will also be on hand to answer and help address any of your housing-related issues.

The meeting will be conducted in English, with Russian and Spanish translators on hand. Light refreshments will be served. Bring your friends and neighbors!

To learn more, call (718) 891-0800, go to www.brightonbeach.com and follow BNA on Facebook.

Screenshot of BCTV host Alyonka Larionov from “BCTV – Brighton Beach” by Ali Hashemi. Source: Vimeo

If you have visited the brand-spanking new Barclays Center this year, you might have already seen this cool new tribute to Brighton Beach, which has been playing on Barclays Center Television (BCTV).

The video features the fetching Alyonka Larionov jaunting her way through Brighton Beach, eating authentic pierogis, vamping like Leo DiCaprio on the boardwalk, and sharing drinks with some friendly Moscovians in town to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

Aloynka, who makes mention of her Russian roots, does get a little confused when referencing Brighton Beach Boulevard, which we all know doesn’t exist. Geographic error aside, she leads an otherwise cheerful tour through Brighton Beach, checking out Russian hats, Russian dolls (no, not these Russian Dolls) and Russian candy. She even expounds a little upon that “funny little creature,” Cheburashka.

It’s a fun, snappily-edited and mood-brightening journey though Little Odessa.

BNA’s office is located inside the Chase Bank at 1002 Brighton Beach Avenue. Source: Google Maps

In the first of a series of three February meetings, the Brighton Neighborhood Association (BNA) will be holding a housing meeting on “Senior Benefits and Housing,” February 8 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at BNA’s office, 1002 Brighton Beach Avenue on the corner of Coney Island Avenue (inside Chase Bank’s Community Center — just come inside, turn left, walk past the tellers, and look for the red sign).

Roy Carmona, representing the NYC Department of Aging, will be discussing Section 8, SCRIE, DRIE, HEAP, SNAP (food stamps), as well as any housing issues and concerns you may have.

The meeting will be conducted in English and Russian. Light refreshments will be served. Bring your friends and neighbors!

To learn more, call (718) 891-0800, go to www.brightonbeach.com and follow BNA on Facebook.

Source: Thorsten via Google Maps

British-born star of Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl and The Pink Panther, Emily Mortimer, has nothing but love for Little Odessa.

She calls Tatiana’s at 3152 Brighton 6th Street  her favorite restaurant for romantic dinners with her husband.

According to Mortimer, “On romantic outings in Brooklyn, my husband and I go to a Russian restaurant called Tatiana. It’s on the sea; you order in Russian and get answered in English.”

Mortimer, who studied Russian at Oxford, likes to practice her skills on the boardwalk.

There you have it, folks. The British really are coming. To Brighton.

Sorry for the short notice: The Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach (“Shorefront Y”) is holding a Language and Cultural Exchange this morning, April 16, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The organization will be pairing native Russian speaking community members — many of whom are students of the Shorefront Y’s English as a Second Language Program — with the US Military Academy West Point cadets who are studying Russian as part of their academic curriculum.

There is a need for Russian-speaking volunteers, so if that is something you can do, get yourselves to the Shorefront Y. This volunteer opportunity offers our community’s Russian speaking public a unique opportunity to use their native language skills and culture of origin to help more than 200 cadets practice their Russian verbal skills and comprehension in a way that does not happen on campus.

According to the Shorefront Y, “The exchange has been a colorful event that leaves our community members feeling ‘proud to be American’ and gives cadets a taste of the Russian people and culture they will meet abroad.”

You can learn more about the cross-cultural exchange in this video.

The Shorefront YM-YWHA is located at 3300 Coney Island Avenue, right off the boardwalk. To learn more, call the Shorefront Y at (718) 646-1444 or email mail@shorefronty.org.

It’s always a heart-breaker for me when an establishment has been around so long that it becomes part of the landscape, then closes before I get around to that promise I made to myself to stop in and try it. Moscow on Hudson at 1920 Avenue U is one of those places.

I used to spend a lot of time on this stretch of Avenue U when I was in high school or visiting from college, and I’d always pass this Eastern European deli and bakery. I knew it was one of the oldest in the neighborhood – certainly one of the first Eastern European places I saw on Avenue U or in Sheepshead Bay generally – establishing itself at its small storefront much earlier than the later bazaars that serve up larger selections on plots with much larger square footage (see: Net Cost Market, Cherry Hill Gourmet, et cetera). I had planned to stop in for some pirozhki or salads or maybe smoked salmon, which I heard they had the freshest in the area.

But, alas, that will not happen. When I walked by last week – fully prepared to keep walking and visit it another day – some construction caught my eye and dragged the storefront out of the landscape and into focus. The gates were down, the innards were out. Moscow on Hudson is no more.

A member of the crew seconds before she told me not to use flash on my camera. Photos by Erica Sherman

We received a heads up from a tipster that the brand new J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan drama, “Person of Interest,” the pilot of which debuted on CBS last week, was filming on Brighton Beach Avenue and Brighton 12th Street yesterday, so we ran on over and shot a few photos.

Additional photos and a write-up are below the fold…

Sergei Dovlatov, right, with Peter Vail in New York (1981). Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

We received a press release from our friends at the Shorefront YM-YWHA (3300 Coney Island Avenue, corner of Brightwater Court), including an event scheduled this weekend on September 25:

Starting in September 2011, the recognition of iconic Soviet émigré writer Sergei Dovlatov’s 70-year birthday anniversary will take place in Russia, Estonia, and United States, the places where Sergei Dovlatov lived and worked. Dovlatov, whose work is loved by millions all over the world, lived in New York City after his forceful exile from the Soviet Union in 1979. In New York he found great success, publishing 12 stories in the prestigious magazine “The New Yorker,” 11 books, and receiving the Pen Club Prize in 1986, for best story of the year.

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Father and daughter duo, Veniamin and Alika Smekhov. Source: ShorefrontY.org

As part of its fourth Annual Summer Nights Festival 2011, the Shorefront YM-YWHA, 3300 Coney Island Avenue, will be presenting “Twelve Months of Tango,” a poetry-musical performance featuring the renown father and daughter duo, Veniamin and Alika Smekhov, and the Tango Orchestra, July 10 at 6 p.m.

Veniamin Smekhov, an actor, director, and writer, famed for his work with the Moscow Taganka Theater, starred in the role of Athos in the Russian version of “The Three Musketeers” (1978) and subsequent sequels (1992, 1993). His daughter, Alika, is a Russian actress, singer and television TV hostess.

According to the YM-YWHA’s website (where you can also watch videos of the duo performing):

Veniamin Smekhov wrote new lyrics to the famous Polish Tango 1930 and connected it with the poetry of the Silver Age, resulting in a rich program combining the drama of tango music with the energy of the verse, debuted by the father and daughter duo. The contemporary video art creates a parallel story to the old texts and melodies. Each season is presented in its own color and an actress wears vintage dresses from the 1930s-50s, creating a sense of nostalgia in this magnificent performance.

Tickets, which can be purchased on the Y’s website, are $30 for non-members, $27 for members, seniors and students. The $35 tickets for the first three rows have all been sold out (Wow, they must be really popular!) For more, contact YM-YWHA Cultural and Arts Director Irina Volkovich at (718) 646-1444 extension 326, email volkovi@shorefronty.org or go to www.shorefronty.org/arts.