Wednesday, March 18, 2009

At the Tub, Christmas 1933



From an archival photo from Corbis dated 1933. Here's the original caption:

Homeless and Unemployed Men Eating at Relief Center
Mr. Zero A Real Santa To Them. Nearly 5,000 homeless and unemployed men were the guest of Urbain Ledoux (Mr. Zero), at a Christmas Day dinner served by him in his haven for the needy, called the Tub at 33 St. Mark's Place, New York City. The principal item was Mulligan stew, made of turkey, chicken, goose and squabs, and how they enjoyed it. Here are some of the needy "digging in" at the savory meal prepared for them.


33 St. Mark's Place is now home to, among other things, Rockit Science Records.

(Hat tip, Mick)

[Image: via Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS]

Don't mess with Mr. G

Been a little slack. On my to-do list since, uh, last summer...join Jeremiah's Urban Etiquette Signs pool at Flickr. Anyway, here are a few candidates from making the rounds in recent months...







Jaws

A few weeks back our pal BoweryBoogie mentioned the Western Union ads on the vacant groundfloor storefront along the Ludlow...

Anyway, this damn thing continues to terrify me...


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Appreciating a great bar on a day where it's not safe to go into any bars

Mars Bar, of course. First Street at Second Avenue. Not that you'll see anyone here today in green plastic hats and what not, but you never know what pub crawlers might be around on March 17...












Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day. May you not have to spend it near anyone who has been drinking Irish Truck Bombs. (Yeah, it's a pitcher instead of a pint.)

Just another photo of a dog trying to hotwire a van



Looking how guilty he/she looks! Caught on Ninth Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

What's wrong with this picture?



Spotted in the Financial District.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Avenue ATM (aka, how many stupid ATMs does one block need?)

A new ATM was recently installed in front of the China Wok on Avenue B at Third Street....



Fine, though there was already an ATM across the street by Mama's Bar...



and one a few feet away farther south on Avenue B...



and one a few feet farther than that on the same side of the Avenue...



and two directly across the street from these...



Not to mention the ATM outside the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union on the northeast side of Avenue B at Third Street.

For those who need some spiritual intervention while preparing your taxes this year



On Avenue D.

What's on the minds of the neighborhood's youth?

Let's take a look at the chalk art some schoolchildren recently left in Tompkins Square Park...based on this they seem to be well-read...with a firm grasp of important societal issues....





And they seem to be reading the tabloids as well...

Looking at the crack at St. Brigid's

The Villager recently has an article on the architectural plans to renovate St. Brigid's at Eighth Street and Avenue B....One of the major challenges: the large crack on the north side, which is partially detached from the church. Here's what it looks like:


Two posts from one year ago on EV Grieve...

East 7th Street, 4:50 p.m., March 16



Just wait until tomorrow.

AND:

You've been warned



AKA Amateur Hour.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tweet and lowdown...the tweet smell of success...tweet dreams...the tweet hereafter....after dark, my tweet...



Heh. Sorry. A just love bad Tweet puns! So. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me yet, I signed up for a Twitter account, so I can start writing insightful things like, "Meeting Jeremiah for brunch at Chocolate by the Bald Man." Well, not really. Anyway, if you want to get in on the hot 140-character action, here you go!
BoweryBoogie is there too. And maybe a few other people.

Wide load?



At Second Avenue and First Street.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

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.

Friday, March 13, 2009

The Condo Fucks

I'm still looking for my 7-inch of "Fuckin' Gary Sandy." Anyway! The backstory of the Condo Fucks:



(Thanks, BrooklynVegan)

Meanwhile, another Condo-Fucky-y band to enjoy....


Friday photo follies (with apologies)





Just passing some time at Nathan's at Coney Island...

Two good bags: At J. Baczynsky's East Village Meat Market

I love everything about J. Baczynsky's East Village Meat Market at 139 Second Ave. near Ninth Street...seen here in this shot taken by EssG (via Flickr).



...including their shopping bags. I treat the bags like a piece of art. While I could recycle them whenever I go visit to the shop, I greedily get another one...




...which is one reason they may have run out of the bags the other day...they were left to use the common "I heart NY" variety...



I was told the bag shortage was only temporary. Still, these things can't be cheap to make.

For further reading:
Bye-bye Burritoville (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

We hope the Archdiocese didn't spend any of the $10 million on the new "no parking" sign for St. Brigid's



At Eighth Street and Avenue B.

At home as it is in the tavern



At the all-new Robin Raj at 114 Third Ave. near 14th Street.

How about IM and texting?



East Seventh Street at First Avenue.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A rally at P.S. 64



"East Village activists and preservationists rallied outside the old P.S. 64 Monday afternoon, demanding that the Landmarks Preservation Commission save the neglected turn-of-the-century school from ruin." (The Villager)

A Polaroid from 1982

Blogger Jack Brummet at All This is That today posts a Polaroid that he received in 1982...It's a shot of Keith Haring's mural on Houston and the Bowery....



The photo was affixed to a postcard and mailed to him from San Francisco...the former NYC resident was living in Seattle. You can see the postmark on the bottom left of the photo....