Edge of Seventeen

A favorite from the EVG archives

A scene from 2nd Avenue around 2011

Tomorrow (Dec. 21) marks the 17th anniversary of this site. (We rehashed how it started last year. And the year before.)

So, we want to reflect on the journey we've shared. This milestone is a testament to the vibrant community that keeps us going daily, for better or worse. 

Thank you to our frequent contributors, Derek Berg and Steven, for their steady stream of photos and tips. And a big shout-out to Stacie Joy, whose dedication to capturing the stories of our local businesses and residents is nothing short of remarkable.

We want to express our gratitude to you, our readers, for fueling this site with your passion and support.

Thank you for reading, sharing your thoughts, sending tips, and joining us in mourning the losses and celebrating the wins that shape our neighborhood. This site works because of you. We truly couldn't do it without you. 

Thank you to our friend Stevie for the headline inspiration.

No. 14

Here's your annual reminder that EVG is another year older.

The very first post arrived on this site on this date in 2007. It was about Sophie's, which is why I posted the top pic. 

I explained the origins of this news site in our gala 13th-anniversary post right here. 

So let's use the rest of the allotted time in this post to thank you for reading the site, leaving comments, sharing tips, commiserating about the loss of a business and celebrating the best neighborhood around. As I've said before, this site doesn't work without you.

A big thanks to all the frequent contributors, especially Derek Berg and Steven, for their ongoing photo and tip submissions. And a special shout-out to Stacie Joy for her tireless work in documenting the businesses and residents of the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, a happy and healthy holiday season to you!

[Updating] Local blogger annoyed by new blog look

There's trouble behind the scenes at evgrieve.com, where a new template — and new fonts — inexplicably made their way onto the Blogger platform. 

As you may recall, there were template/HTML changes last fall that made uploading photos and copy more tedious. 

Meanwhile, as of this evening, the classic EVG template that you've come to enjoy these past 37 years is now apparently gone for good. 

For now, we'll be working on some repairs in the background, which may mean a lack of new posts here in the near future. We'll also see if we can restore all the EVG mixtapes to our MySpace page. 

So please excuse this rather funky look as we stare at our computer.

Updated 

8/13 9:09 a.m.

I am pleased that everyone has bought the "template" story.

So I'd like to introduce you to the EVG OnlyFans page account!

Kidding!

For real, thank you for the kind words — even the commenters who said "If you don't like new Blogger templates, then move to Iowa" and "Blogger used to be such a safe platform" and "Blogger has always been about change." 

So Blogger will let you return to the Classic template that EVG has used since Dec. 21, 2007.

But!

I won't be able to do much with it, such as have access to the theme designer.

Meanwhile, the inventory of available Blogger templates to choose from are uniformly awful — wait till you see their Soho Pink (for real!).

Updated 

8/13 2:24 p.m.

We've spent the day with the Ping Intelligence Team and have made progress with restoring the content to the side of the site (archives, etc.). There is no going back on the previous template (RIP December 2007-August 2021) and will move forward with the Best of the Worst template currently available. 

Thank you for your patience and kind words!

No. 13

The very first post arrived on this site on this date in 2007. (At 5:48 p.m. on a Friday, no less! 😂) 

So a little site history. The post was a cut-n-paste from Page Six noting the possible upcoming sale of Sophie's, the neighborhood bar on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. The Page Six item fueled concerns that the bar, along with Mona's on Avenue B, would be closing following a sale... bringing an end to two low-key bars and ushering in something potentially awful. 

That was enough to spur some action — a blog! 

At the time, the site was called — no kidding — Sophie's Bar Blog. It was intended to serve as a time capsule for Sophie's, a place where I had spent some quality time. 

Anyway, as we quickly learned, the bars stayed in the family and are pretty much exactly as they were 13 years ago. (Both Sophie's and Mona's, along with Josie's, are temporarily closed during the Cuomotine.) 

After about a month of Sophie's Bar Blog, the site would be retired. But! Stupid Jeremiah Moss, who somehow found Sophie's Bar Blog, suggested that I keep the site going, concentrating on other closures in the neighborhood. 

So 30,000-plus posts later, here we are in year No. 13. It's a good time to thank you for reading the site and sharing the journey ... I'm grateful to everyone who has shared a story, provided an idea, sent in a photo, commiserated over the loss of a favorite place, and so on. 

I'm especially thankful to the EVG contributors, such as Derek Berg and Steven, who pass along photos, tips and observations on a near-daily basis. And then there is Stacie Joy, who continues to actively document the businesses and residents of the East Village, bringing to life a special group of people and places through her camera.

At this point, I'm not looking too far into the future, focusing on the here and now. So here's to a happy and healthy holiday season!

This is a test (really)

Please pay no mind to this post. I'll probably delete it later.

As I reported last month, there's a new Blogger tool for uploading photos and it's awful.

I need to continue playing around with the new templates, and it's best to do so with live posts. Quite strange — talking to myself — why this Halloween-time photo at Beauty Bar on 14th Street is so small and centered on the post ... and there's so much space between the headline and photo.

Anyway, let's play the Cramps! (The embed via YouTube also needs some tweaking.)

Today we're 8 (in blog years)

EV Grieve started eight years ago today. On this occasion.

This is a moment to thank you for reading and commenting and offering feedback and story ideas and theories and everything. This site doesn't work without you.

And thank you to the frequent EVG contributors, including Dave on 7th, Derek Berg, Stacie Joy, James Maher, Steven who, like Cher, doesn't use a last name, and Bobby Williams.

Someone recently asked me what my favorite all-time EVG post was. I have no idea. But I found this one to be the most compelling in recent years.

In which we turn 6! 6! 6!

[One day on Second Avenue]

The EV Grieve website/blog turns 6 tomorrow. Thought I'd mention it now, though.

The whole thing started because of this. (Ultimately a false alarm! Thanks Page Six!)

Anyway, on previous anniversaries, I talked about the secret formula for blogging (No. 4) and my dubious past as TV Grieve (No. 5).

Today, I'm here to talk about the future. Starting today, I'm launching a Kickstarter campaign without a business plan to raise $750,000 to create Grieve.You.Me, a new site powered by a proprietary algorithm that also generates positive Yelp reviews and...

Ahhh. OK, a sincere thank you to everyone who has been part of any of EVG these past six years… from taking the time to read the site… sharing the posts… commenting, complaining, commiserating, passing along tips, laughing, crying… you know. Your involvement and camaraderie makes it all worthwhile. (And a large thank you to everyone who contributes to the blog on a regular basis, including Bobby Williams, who sends me great photos every day, and James Maher, who presents a compelling portrait of our neighbors every week in Out and About in the East Village.)

Thank you.

As for the real future, I'm looking forward to continuing on… hope that you are too.


[East 5th Street between Avenue A and B]

Today, we're 5; TV Grieve exposed

Today marks the five-year anniversary of EV Grieve. 

A couple of you may recall the humble beginnings here, when I was known as TV Grieve — a blog about television. And Tara Reid. Here's an early post...

But it was a crowded marketplace, so I rebranded and...

OK, I made that up.

Anyway, thank you for your support, comments, gripes, tips, photos, Lady Gaga jokes, camaraderie, passion — everything. Thank you.

Doing this every day, seven days a week, often swings from being completely exhilarating to utterly depressing. (And back!) I've thought about slowing down... gently bringing the site all to an end.

Funny, though. Maybe some time passes. And I'm in another part of NYC or out of town ... and I find myself taking pictures of plywood around storefronts and for lease signs on restaurants for absolutely no reason ... I can't really stop. And I really do love living here.

So ... we might be stuck with each other for awhile.

I hope so. I'm not going anywhere. I hope that you're not either.

Shocking revelations: People like looking at photos of topless women on the Internet

Last Friday, we posted the item about the topless advocate who was walking around the neighborhood topless. (This post.)

Since then, we've received quite a few more photos (which we never posted) of the women, first identified by Racked as Moira Johnston.

Anyway, our post quickly became the most-viewed, uh, post in EV Grieve's five-year history, easily topping the former No. 1 — The East Village rolls out welcome wagon for new Starbucks.

Which begs the question: Will you start posting more photos of topless women?

Yes. And we will also include some peen for equal time.

Actually, that wasn't the question.

This is: What was the least-viewed EV Grieve post of all time?

Oh! So many to choose from.

Blogger doesn't keep track of such things. But if we had to guess. It was this one from July 9, 2008...

Per the post:

Drug store celebrity exit wars
Duade Reade has Mario Lopez gracing its exits (and disguising the store's security system). Not to be outdone, Rite Aid (at least the one on 14th Street between Avenues A and B) wants us to smell like David Beckham.

According to Google Analytics, no one even casually glimpsed at this post.

Breaking: EV Grieve did not win the Mega Millions

Of course, we never even bought any tickets. Still, you never know. The winning tickets for the $640-million jackpot were from Maryland, Kansas and Illinois. (Just think: $640 million is roughly 3 percent of Mayor Bloomberg's $22 billion net worth!)

In any event, we did enjoy some of the homemade signs with updates during the Mega-Millions frenzy

And, here on Second Street and Avenue A, the Penistrator, or a clever imitator, did this last week...

[Via Matt LES_Miserable]

And, to telegraph it...

No Powerball jokes, please.

Today, we're 4

Today marks the four-year anniversary of EV Grieve.

Many thanks for being part of this — reading, commenting, sharing, laughing, crying, making "Is that Lady Gaga?" jokes. Thank you for helping inspire me to keep the site going. Thank you for whatever you do to help keep this neighborhood interesting.

And now, on this occasion, an inside look at how we create a post.

First, we place our process information in the relationship below.

(Conveyor speed of _____ feet per hour) X (Dwell time of _____ hour) = (Heat zone length of _____ feet)

... and, well, you get the idea...

UPDATED:
Thank you to Rosie Gray for the nice write-up today at Runnin' Scared. You can read that post here.

10,000 and counting: The final chapter, a new beginning

Well, we're wrapping up a four-day tour of old EVG items in honor on this site's 10,000th post.

And on Monday, we unveil a new chapter here. We've hooked up with some local businesses to present a more challenging site. The various lawyers have finally agreed on the name: The BMEVW GuggenGrieve Lab, a hyperlocal think blog that will confront discomfort, like, what to do when your personal shopper calls in sick or you have to wait for that fucker to climb the stairs with your Thai delivery because the elevator is out.

As fun as that sounds, we're only joking. Thank you for reading.

10,000 and counting: A new hope

Just a quick note to say that, in honor of our recent 10,000th post, we're pulling up some treasures from the EVG archives. So in case you are wondering what this old shit is. We'll be back with a few more tomorrow.

10,000 and counting, still

As we mentioned yesterday, we just posted our 10,000th post. In honor of that mark, we've decided to go back into our archives and relive some of those 10,000 posts this week. Anyway, we wouldn't dig in if we were you. We don't know where it's gonna go. Swear to God. And we'll be back later today with some actual news and what not.

10,000 and counting

One day recently, we posted our 10,000th, uh, post. In honor of that mark, we've decided to go back into our archives and dredge up repost some of those 10,000, uh, posts. So on every morning the rest of this week, we will take a trip into the EVG archives. Anyway, enjoy while you can — they're all going behind a paywall accessible only via a pricy EVG iPad app. (Kidding!)

Anyway, we'll be back later with the usual news or whatever later today.

A July 4 reminder from EV Grieve

Difficult to believe, but next Monday is July 4. And please, for the children, remember that...

So far, people seem to be taking well to the reminders...

Today in EV Grieve talking about stuff

This week went by in a blurry. So a belated thank you to Rebecca Marx at the Voice for interviewing me for a piece that was titled, EV Grieve Reflects on the Lessons of CB3 Meetings, Superdive, and the East Village as a "Foodie Tourist Trap"

You can read it here.

And there are no refunds.

[Updated] Comments today

Apparently there is some Blogger/Google-wide issue today with the comments section. If somebody decides to comment as anonymous or with Name/Url, then they are automatically treated as if they had chosen to comment with their Blogger/Google account. Uh-huh. The Blogger people are aware of it, as everyone with a Blogger account is pissed. They are working on a fix. Apologies in the meantime...

[April 29, early: Blogger has seemingly fixed the problem. You may now comment away and write things like "BALLS"]

No. 25,000

Last evening, EV Grieve passed a milestone that he or she wanted to mention... Marty Wombacher left the following comment... which also turned out to be the 25,000th comment in EV Grieve's history. (And we're so pleased that this historic comment included "penis.")

And it's also an opportunity for a sincere thank you for reading and continuing to take the time to offer your opinions and anecdotes and share your thoughts and experiences... To the next 25,000 comments then.

EV Grieve addresses the Coop barf backlash (and yes, the Serial Vomiter struck again)

Two weeks ago, EV Grieve posted a, um, post titled "Devomiting story: No one threw up on the Coop this past weekend, however..." Several e-mailers and commenters thought please, enough, take your obsession somewhere less visible. Said one commenter: "please, enough, take your obsession somewhere less visible."

So, EV Grieve listened. So now if, and only if, you are interested in following the Cooper barf story, then you may click here for the very best in hyperlocal vomiting reporting. Again, you go HERE for the new site. Otherwise, please continue reading the next post. Thank you.