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Mars Bar & the Lower East Side Scene¶

Mars Bar¶

Iconic dive bar on the Lower East Side
Niko went there since age 18, almost every day
The scene: artists, intellectuals, crazy rabble-rousers
Drinking: shots of whiskey
Drugs: cocaine, eventually heroin
All through the 1990s
Very intense — a lot of people died
This was the social center of his LES life

Remi¶

Ukrainian girl from KHARKIV
Artist
Came to US with her family
Met Niko at the Mars Bar
(This is the Remi from the environmental design — the creative space Niko wants to build for her)

Samaritan Village¶

Therapeutic community
Went there after the boys home (Saint Cabrini's era)
The world was so bleak he went into drugs
Went ALL THE WAY immediately — needles from the beginning
'Super extreme, balls to the wall, from the beginning'
'That's how I do everything — super extreme'
Same pattern: maximum intensity in every dimension

~14: Cut wrists, left home
~14-15: Saint Cabrini's (Catholic group home)
~15-16: First Rikers (from riot)
~16-17: Samaritan Village (therapeutic community)
~18: Mars Bar begins, Pablo in Mexico City, drugs escalate
Through the 90s: Mars Bar scene, LES life, cycling through institutions