Swept away at Banco Popular

Banco Popular on Houston and Avenue B is doing business the old-fashioned way...offering you a free gift to open a checking account! On the day I passed by, the gift was a mini-vacuum cleaner.




By the way, funny how some security guards get so antsy about people taking pictures in a bank lobby!

Noted

On the Bowery near Prince.

Boss Hog at the Bowery Ballroom

Boss Hog played their first NYC show in nearly eight years a few hours ago at the Bowery Ballroom. Too often I expect the worst...like some sort of nostalgic horror show. The Band Who Should Have Stopped Years Ago. I felt that way for a few minutes at the onset of the show...I was expecting more, as if I was supposed to be magically transported back to 1990 NYC. Anyway! Not that I was overthinking things! That quickly passed, and I enjoyed the Boss Hog hit parade...I'm looking forward to some new material and a new album now, OK?





And Dirty Martini served as MC for the evening...

A letter from the editor, EV Grieve

Good morning. I hate the Internet. Also, I have a new url — evgrieve.com. The old url is allegedly supposed to redirect people to the new one. That isn't happening. All the links are dead. I'm so suing Al Gore's ass. I'm hoping this will all get sorted out one of these years. In any event, http://evgrieve.com is what to use from here on.

Oh, why you ask? Why do something as stupid as change your url?

Branding. It's all about branding. Branding and paradigm shifts. Soon, I will be rolling out a chain of fro-yo shops — Grieve Berry. I'll be opening five of them on Avenue A between 12th and 13th.

Plus, on the serious side, it made more sense to use evgrieve.com.

Thank you for reading.

How much are those doggies in the window? (C'mon, how can I not use that?)

Along Avenue A.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Saturday in the EV: dead rats and Jewels' ass (Neither More Nor Less)

Jeremiah rides the 1 train to bid farewell to the South Ferry Station (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Gov. Paterson wants to tax every goddamn thing that you can think of, pretty much (Daily News)

Boozing + subway shenanigans = death (New York Post)

Nathan Kensinger shoots Willets Point (Nathan Kensinger Photography)

BoweryBoogie has a cool new look (BoweryBoogie)

CBGB is trying to live again (Stupefaction)

Double ugh: No lease for Ruby's yet (Kinetic Carnival)

Those disappearing coffee shops (Blah Blog Blah)

Kirby is suitably horrified at the SATC tour (Colonnade Row)

Staples pulls out of the South Street Seaport gateway: That was easy

The big Staples store (they're actually all big, huh?) that anchored the corner of Water Street and Fulton Street at the gateway to the South Street Seaport rather quietly packed up its ink and toner, binders and desk organizers, and closed up shop last month. Maybe the Staples brass figured business would fall because NYU's lease on the Rockrose-owned Water Street dorm adjacent to the store will not be renewed after this academic year.



There has been activity here of late, though it mostly seems to be workers clearing out the remaining Staples stuff.



Apparently they don't want you to know a Staples was here.



With the departure of the Strand Annex at 95 Fulton in September, there is some nice, fat storefrontage available on the east-end of the street. Maybe that construction will be completed in the next 10 years or so.

Short film of the East Village circa 1971

Trench warfare

Have you noticed the trench that stretches across First Avenue at Sixth Street? I feel as if I need to wear a mouthguard and football helmet when I'm going up the Avenue on the M15. I love the noise the bus makes when the unsuspecting drive -- feeling good for having made the lights -- hits the trench. BuuhhhhBOOOOOM. Or something close tho that. OK, slow down Sandra Bullock!

Anyway, easy enough for me to be lighthearted about it. Then I met someone who lives in a building adjacent to the trench. Not much fun. The noise — BuuhhhhBOOOOOM, if you've been paying attention — is one thing. The resident has other worries: "I'm really afraid the constant earthquakes will stress my crappy building enough to make the already warped floors collapse." Ugh. Last thing anyone needs is another building collapse. This is exactly the kind of thing 311 is for. Give 'em a call. They'll forward a complaint to the DOT.

One corner that won't be a condo (anytime soon)

The City Room reports that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated two new landmarks yesterday, including St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church at 288 E. 10th St. at Avenue A. According to C'ty Room, the church was "built in 1882 and 1883 as the Memorial Chapel of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, one of the city’s oldest Episcopal parishes, as the gift of Rutherford Stuyvesant, a descendant of the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, in memory of his wife." This will be on the midterm.

Your chance to heckle a grump!

Joking! Please be nice to Mr. Reed! From The Villager's A-list:

Lou Reed will be making a special appearance to read from, discuss, and sign his book, “Pass Thru Fire: the Collected Lyrics.” Containing a body of work that spans more than three decades, “Pass Thru Fire” (Da Capo Books, December 2008) is a compilation of the lyrics of an American original. Beginning with his formative days in the Velvet Underground and continuing through his remarkable solo career—albums like Transformer, Berlin, New York, Magic and Loss, and Ecstasy--Pass Thru Fire is crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate underground musician, but as one of the truly significant poets of our time. Wed., Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. Free. Housing Works Book Café. 126 Crosby St. (betw. Prince & Houston Sts.)

That inevitable first snow of the season photo

In Tompkins Square Park.

Meter beaters

Jeremiah has the gory photos of the old parking meters being ripped out of the ground today in the East Village.

Earlier today on EV Grieve:
More old-school parking meters to meet their maker, join 45 RPM jukeboxes in coin heaven

Back to the Stones age

That malarkey about an impromptu Fall Out Boy show yesterday at Washington Square Park made me want to...Oh, forget it.

On May 1, 1975, the Stones announced their summer tour by playing an impromptu set on a flatbed truck on lower Fifth Avenue. Here's some shitty-looking footage about the surprise gig from two newscasts...I love the couple's reaction at the 2:18 point.