The last American Virgins to close

You probably saw the news last Friday that the two Virgin Megastores in New York (Union Square, Times Square) will close in the coming months. (It was previously reported that just the Times Square location would shut.) Then late yesterday, Billboard reported that all of the remaining Virgin stores in the United States were being shuttered.

This has certainly been discussed somewhere...but! Are there any chain record stores left in NYC? I've lost track. The F.Y.E. on Sixth Avenue near Radio City is long gone, right? And I don't count those combo chains like Best Buy or Barnes & Noble that may sell music...or locals like J&R.

Anyway, I'm no fan of Virgin or any national chains...And Alex expressed exactly how I feel about all this in a post from this past January:

I don't honestly believe the Virgin Megastore is all that great. Sure, it's convenient, but it's ultimately just an arguably soulless chain store that caters to the lo.com.denom-addicted masses. That said, it's yet another place to buy music that is vanishing, and I find that rather sad.

So maybe this is a little good news for the remaining indie record shops around town? Otherwise, like everything else, it's a bad time for music...including Mondo Kim's, Etherea (a new record shop at this spot is in the works with a different vibe)...Strider Records maybe... Vinyl specialist Malachi Records quietly closed after just six months. They were in a rather obscure second-floor location at Fulton and Nassau in the Financial District....What else am I missing? Oh, and not to forget what's happening to Music Row.

Related:
In case you haven't seen Ben Sisario's "The death and life of great Manhattan record stores" piece from last April.

Last day for the Virgin Megastore (and why you will see so many people wearing Virgin Orlando T-shirts)

Just before 10 a.m. today, some 30 people were waiting in line for the last day of the Virgin Megastore on Union Square. I was not one of them. But when the doors opened, I decided to go in... I was ready to take a picture of the crowd entering the store, but a woman carrying a small dog shoved me.



Everything was 90 to 90 percent off.... One of the workers yelled, "Buy everything people!" And I said, Good luck with that, people.



I was unfamiliar with 90 percent of the artists left behind. Well, there was the Jimmy Buffett Christmas record.



The remaining crap for sale was kept to a small space. The rest of the hulking store sat empty. Somewhere downstairs, workers were yelling, their voices echoing throughout the former Megastore. First time that I'd ever been in here without some music or movie blaring from the speakers.






Somehow, people found stuff to buy. Mostly what was left... I'd say 500-800 Virgin Orlando T-shirts...$1 each!

Updated: Skylight falls from St. Brigid's; Virgin Mary destroyed

There was some drama on East Eighth Street at Avenue B early this morning after one of the skylights from the Church of Saint Brigid – Saint Emeric came crashing down from the roof... @MediaJorge shared these two photos showing the FDNY on the scene...



As far as we know there weren't any injuries... we'll update when we get more information on what happened...

The combined parish reopened on Jan. 27, 2013.

Updated 10:18 a.m.

EVG reader Peter from 8th St. shared these photos from this morning...





The plastic encasement that houses the statue of the Virgin Mary was also damaged...



... as well as the Virgin Mary...

The final countdown

As of yesterday, there were eight days left for the Virgin Megastore on Union Square. All CDs and DVDs are now 50 percent off their hiked up prices...



If you look hard enough, then you may find something that you may want... Otherwise, it's grotesque consumerism at its worst...



What remains is the Virgin Overstock Megastore. Things that were shipped in from Virgin Warehouses around the world just for the closing sale. What else could explain, say..... Dozens and dozens of "Hellboy II" action figures. Dozens and dozens of copies of the attempt to make Rick Springfield a movie star in "Hard to Hold." Dozens and dozens of copies of U2's "No Line on the Horizon" limited box set including CD, hardcover book, poster, featurette on the Edge buying a ski cap, a behind-the-scenes look at Larry Mullen Jr.'s First Communion and Bono's photo album of bikini-clad groupies. It's times like these when you realize there have been like 37 versions of "Blade Runner" released. You remember how little respect giant entertainment groups have for consumers.

And so many things whose existence was so unnecessary.




Oh, and the complete series (six seasons!) of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" is 50 percent off its $232 sticker price.

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Michael Feeney (and Misty)
Occupation: Electrical Contractor, Marine
Location: 6th Street between 1st and A.
Time: 2:55 pm on Monday, November 26

I'm 79 and this coming April 16, I'll have been living in this same building for 50 years. I came here with my family when I was 10; that was in 1943. I grew up on 9th Street between C and D and there were no projects around there; it was all tenements. These buildings (Village View) were tenements also. It was all together different around here. Everybody hung out on their stoops. The women sat with other women; the men sat together listening to the baseball games on the radio; the kids played stickball, kick-the-can, ringalevio. People on these blocks were not neighbors; they were all friends.

This neighborhood was Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish. It was a working-class neighborhood. You had a lot of greasy spoons back in those days; nothing like this. There were a lot of Polish and Jewish restaurants. The prices were, forget it, dirt cheap. Back in those days when summers rolled around, everybody slept with all the windows and doors opened. Some people slept on fire escapes and some slept on the roofs to get some air. Nobody had a fan or air conditioning.

I was only a kid when I got here and when I was 13 the courts put me and my brother into a home on Staten Island. I was supposed to be there until I was 18, but I was so bad and they were so angry with me that they threw me out when I was 16. I was Catholic and went to Catholic school.

They whooped you in those days when you did something wrong. They would whoop me all of the time. I said little gems like, “Jesus was not the son of God, he was the son of Joseph of Arimathea,” and they did not like that. So I got whooped for that. And then I said, “I have a brain. God gave me a brain and I like to use it. How can you in good conscience, how can any religion call her the Virgin Mary when she was married and had two kids before Jesus. How in the hell was she a virgin?” I got whooped for that one.

At 16, I was working uptown in Hell’s Kitchen, loading and unloading trailer trucks. Then, in 1950, I located my old man and got him to sign the papers so I could enlist in the Marine Corps and I made it to the Korean War. I didn’t turn 17 until two and a half weeks before we landed in Korea.

After that I just hung out for awhile and then worked for a laundry where I made $35 a week, plus tips. Then I went into the electrical business, working for contractors and my salary went up to $50 a week for 40 hours. That’s a buck and a quarter an hour. I worked in that business for 29 years.

Misty is a rescue dog. She’ll be a year old next month; I just got her about 3 months ago. They used to use her as a bait dog to train pit bulls to fight. She had three infections. They tied her up at a factory in Jersey and left her to die. For four days she didn’t have any food or water until a night watchman heard her crying and saw her laying there. He called up animal rescue, who got her and took care of the infections. Then, when I got her she was all skin and bones. She loves people; she’s so friendly, but you can’t bring her anywhere near other dogs or she’ll attack.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Wal-Mart passes on Virgin Megastore space at Union Square, though are "still interested" in cracking the Big Apple

From the Post today:

Manhattan's retail rent rollback is causing Wal-Mart to give the city another look.

The giant discount chain has shopped for space in Union Square and among the big-box stores along Sixth Avenue in Chelsea, The Post has learned.

Wal-Mart recently passed on a proposal by Related Companies for a two-level store of about 57,000 feet in Union Square where Virgin Megastores and Circuit City are closing, sources said.

The company's real-estate scouts have also been roaming the area around 620 Sixth Ave., said the sources.

Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said the Union Square sites "were never under consideration." But he said the company is "still interested" in opening stores in New York, despite strong political and union opposition.

Citibank thinks that we're excited for a new bank branch

On Union Square, at the corner that once housed the Virgin Megastore...




...why else would Citibank feel the need for a countdown clock? Woo 57 days!



This will complete the transformation of Union Square South... the former Circuit City-Virgin Megastore space on 14th Street between Fourth Avenue and Broadway now features Best Buy, Duane Reade, Nordstrom Rack and the incoming, state-of-the-art Citibank.

Like a Virgin Megastore going-out-of-business sale (groan)

As you may have heard, the Virgin Megastore is closing on Union Square. I was finally lured in Saturday like a sucker with the "up to 40 percent" off signs... Also, I wanted to make a bid on the Lady GaGa banner in the window. (Unfortunately, my offer of "You pay for the can of gas and I'll rip it down and set it on fire on 14th Street" wasn't accepted.)



Well, as for the rest of the store. The new CDs that are usually marked for sale with a $13.99 sticker over the $18.99 sticker...were all $18.99 again. And they were 25 percent off. Ditto for the DVDs. Most new DVDs were $24.99. So with the 25 percent off -- you're pretty much paying what you were paying before the store was going out of business. I'm sure there were bargains elsewhere. Or not. I didn't stick along long enough to dig. Oh, one thing I saw for 40% off? Stationery! Which was all sold out. And the Blondie pocketbooks were also 40% off.

"Yes, I'll take the new Famous L. Renfroe 'Florine EP' and, uh, 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King' please"

This week's issue of The Villager looks at the local independent record-shop scene post Virgin Megastore. "Local stores have been closing almost as rapidly as global CD sales have been falling. But for the stores that remain, managers say they’ve noticed an influx of a younger crowd — the last vestiges of Virgin, come to find their Hannah Montanas, Dave Matthews Bands..."

Historic church on Second Street plans its ruin

Rob at Save the Lower East Side! brings us some troubling news on the development front for the neighborhood. Among the approved projects: The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and Chapel of St. Innocent of Irkutsk on Second Street is planning to add eight residential stories to its current 60-foot height. WTF?

'Lux' living

 

Local band Pom Pom Squad released "Lux" this week... which features a "Virgin Suicides" tribute video of singer-songwriter Mia Berrin's dreams.

Also, today is Bandcamp Friday, in which the platform foregoes its revenue and gives the bands all the $$$ from the day's sales. You can download "Lux" here. 

Dance dance dance

New wheatpaste art — David Bowie, Madonna and Nile Rogers — spotted next to the mural wall on the Bowery at East Houston yesterday. (What connects the three? Rogers produced Madonna's Like a Virgin and co-produced Let's Dance.)

Here's an up-close look at the art, created by The Postman...





... and here's a sampling of other wheatpaste stickers by the Postman that have been around (spotted on either First Street or Second Street) these past few months...

Looking for support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral

From the inbox...



Please come speak in support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr on East Second Street.

Thursday, July 15 at 6 pm at the Community Board 3 Landmarks Subcommittee meeting at BRC, 30 Delancey St. (between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets).

In 2008 GVSHP and the East Village Community Coalition urged the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to consider landmark designation of the Cathedral, where an 8-story condo-tower was being considered to be added to the building. Earlier this year, the LPC held a hearing on potential landmark designation of the historic building, but has not yet voted on the proposal. Now Community Board 3, which has not yet taken a position on the landmarking proposal, is considering it. While the leadership of the Cathedral is opposing landmark designation, some congregants have spoken out in favor of landmarking and many in the neighborhood also support designation.

For more information, go to the GVSHP site.
http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/cathedral-hvp/cathedral-main.htm

To sign an online petition, go here.

By the way, per the EVCC, the Cathedral was built in 1867, designed by the renowned architect Josiah Cleveland Cady, who later designed the Metropolitan Opera House and the auditorium of the American Museum of Natural History

[Cathedral image courtesy of Barry Munger]

Like a crash virgin...

Doree Shafrir and Irina Alexksander look at "crash virgins" in this week's Observer, young New Yorkers experiencing their very first economic downturn.

An excerpt!

Lizzy Goodman was one of the fortunate ones of the class of 2002; upon graduating from Penn, she had a job lined up as an assistant teacher at Buckley, the all-boys school on the Upper East Side. Six years later, she’s an editor at large at Blender. Like some of her peers, she seems hopeful that, instead of being a harbinger of utter doom, this crash will instead level the playing field just a little bit.
“I don’t think anyone is hoping for American financial collapse just so that the Bowery can be seedy again,” said Ms. Goodman, who lives in the West Village. “But on the other hand, if in the wake of this collective shuttering and fearing comes a return to old school ’80s boho New York, I would certainly be in favor of that.”
The disconnect between the New York of legend and the reality of living here has perhaps never been starker. “I know a lot of people who moved to New York for something that isn’t in New York right now,” said Mr. Fischer, the marketing strategist. “There is a sense that things are in transition. I think there’s a big question of how this will change the social and cultural landscape of New York in the next two or three years. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s excitement—but it’s apprehension that something is definitely happening.”
Of course, that’s a story that’s been years in the making; the disappearance of Lehman Brothers and the conversion of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into bank holding companies—as recently as last year thought to be a sacrilege—isn’t going to make $4,000 a month one-bedrooms on the Lower East Side any cheaper. (Or if it does, they’ll go to $3,500 a month, not $1,500.) The days when a photographer could buy an abandoned bank building on the Bowery for $102,000—as the photographer Jay Maisel did in 1966—are over; they are not coming back. (See also: the Playpen, smoking in bars, liquid lunches, Passerby, subway tokens, the Barnes & Noble on Sixth Avenue and 21st St., et cetera, not to mention the Algonquin Round Table, the Automat, Spy magazine, Warhol’s Factory, and the Palladium. Also: typewriters.) Some Wall Street types may flee; a few Wharton grads might move to Boston or San Francisco. But it seems highly unlikely that the crash will herald in some utopian new era of “creativity” or allow artists to colonize Soho, or even the East Village, again. It’s over! You missed it! Even Rent has closed! Besides, the Russians are here now.

The "Eyes" have it: For five bucks

Back in January we linked to a post the Bowery Boys did on the old NYC howler "The Eyes of Laura Mars" starring Faye Dunaway. A friend of EV Grieve reported that this hammy laugher was in the $5 bin at the Union Square Virgin Megastore... well worth the hours of entertainment the film will provide. Uh, in other words, I bought a copy.

Noted

Duane Reade on 14th Street... the one near First Avenue... not the one at Third Avenue ... or at the former Virgin Megastore or... and this costs $19.99?

I hope that "Salt" is a more exciting movie than these photos

I walked on Second Avenue and Second Street yesterday around 5 where the crew was camped out for the CIA thriller "Salt" starring Angelina Jolie. And I saw...not much. Trucks! Lights! Did I miss the mayhem? Anything? Later, it was suggested that they might not have done any filming because of the rain. It was my understanding, though, that the crew would be filming inside and on the steps of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection on Second Street. Let's say that they didn't film, does all this sit around for a few more days...? Or will this be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader later this summer? And when will it actually stop raining anyway, June?

Cloud99 Vapes has closed on 2nd Avenue

[Photos by Steven]

Cloud99 Vapes has closed at 50 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street.

As you can see, the space has been cleared out...



This had been expected. As reported back in October, the shop announced it was closing amid the public health crisis involving vaping products.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 2,711 hospitalized e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury cases or deaths have been reported from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands) as of Jan. 21.

As MSN reported last fall, business at Cloud99 had dropped by 70 percent.

In December, Mayor de Blasio officially signed into law a ban on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes and flavored e-liquids in wintergreen, mint and menthol flavors. The ban goes into effect on July 1.

Cloud99 Vapes opened in 2015 at the site of the former Yoo's Convenience Store.

World's largest Duane Reade now open on Union Square

Well, I'm not sure if it is the world's largest... but this store is huge. Anyway, the Duane Reade is now open next to the Nordstrom Rack in the old Virgin space...



...check out the big bank of fancy video monitors on the right too...



They opened yesterday...



...and are advertising "breakfast, lunch and dinner" in an attempt to nab the masses going to Whole Foods... Oh fresh baked goods!



I would have stayed longer, but in five minutes, three different super-duper-friendly Duane Reade employees asked me if I needed help finding anything...
Yes! The exit!