A few hours later on First Avenue...

Via EV Grieve First Avenue correspondent Blue Glass ... following up on this post from earlier today....

Post columnist defends the marginalized frat boy, people with college degrees

There's a humdinger of a column today in the Post titled "East Village bohemian snobs drive out the frat boys."




You need to read the article for yourself — that is, if you know how to read. ... A few excerpts to get you warmed up...

“Superdive made a lot of us into activists,” a 58-year-old former social worker named Dale Goodson told Capitalnewyork.com, which offered a fascinating history of Superdive.

So, what brand of humanity is considered undignified to a guy who spends his days shepherding the underclass?

Frat boys. Solid men in Big Ten regalia. Business types who spent their college years learning about balance sheets instead of transgressive modes of self-actualization. To these, the East Village can be as intolerant as a monocle-wearing English aristocrat from a P.G. Wodehouse novel, gazing down upon the polloi and pronouncing them a little too hoi.

And!

Community Board 3, at a meeting in which residents carried signs reading (really) “Not in my backyard,” last month opposed one businessman’s request for a liquor license at a new space to replace a former bar at 34 Avenue A — without even listening to his proposal. Silence a dissenting voice? Not very “Rent.”

Or maybe very “Rent” indeed. A bohemian’s idea of anarchy always seems to come with a surprisingly detailed set of standards. The story of the East Village might be how little things have changed — it’s still a cramped little hipster Vatican suspicious of outsiders.

But if your neighborhood is steeped in youthful rebellion, don’t be too outraged when free-spirited types come flocking around in a mad celebration of twentysomething exuberance. And don’t hate them just because their hero is Rex Ryan instead of Allen Ginsberg.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sends message to SantaCon

Last night, EV Grieve reader Hank's Pound of Spaghetti passed a long a photo of someone with a GIANT Santa head entering Diablo Royale Este on Avenue A...

Well! Turns out this was no ordinary Santa!.... It was an Ahmadinejad Santa ...



Via @Preovolos.

Check out Melanie's photos too... She has a great shot of this...

ConEd provides this morning's entertainment

Dunno if the photos and video do this justice... on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street...

Mother Nature sneers: 'Your $3 umbrellas from the deli are no match for me today'

We're losing a lot of good umbrellas out there today. P.S. It's raining.

And just think if it was, oh, 25 degrees colder today

The morning after

Yesterday morning on Avenue B and Houston

The Lower East Side — 'still better than SoHo'

The Post checks in today with a piece on the (likely) closings of the Mars Bar and Max Fish. A few excerpts...

"The Lower East Side felt like it was over a while ago, but [Max Fish] is a very symbolic closing," said author Richard Price, who used the neighborhood as a backdrop to his best seller "Lush Life."

"There are no neighborhoods in Manhattan anymore. South of Harlem, it feels like a bunch of districts where rich people can crash."

And from artist Aaron Rose, former owner of Ludlow Street's Alleged Gallery:

"The Lower East Side will always have some kind of edge until they manage to kick out the Latino community," said Rose. "A lot of people get pissed off that it's not what it used to be, but it's still better than SoHo."

Rather hilariously, here is how the Post chose to illustrate the article...





P.S.
Chilling?

When you try to enter Diablo Royale Este in an extra large Santa head

Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street..... Thanks to EV Grieve reader Hank's Pound of Spaghetti for the photo....

Thanks!

A big thanks to all the Santas who visited the neighborhood tonight and peed on our sidewalks, threw up on our stoops, made fun of our bars, didn't tip our bartenders, etc., etc.

Held hostage by Santa

Earlier today...photos by SantaCon correspondent Blue Glass...

Virage reopens

Virage on Second Avenue at Seventh Street closed this week for renovations... and, per their sign, they were expected to reopen last night... and they were open...

When children talk for a long time on payphones

Second Street at Avenue A.

Santacon taking over Starbucks, Second Avenue

Via @prismpop


Via @katemax


Via @experiri

Meanwhile, on First Avenue

Via @pegchandler

Reporting for duty

11th Street and Second Avenue this morning. Santacon is on. Do with this information what you want. They're a) fun-loving thrillseekers enjoying some holiday camaraderie b) obnoxious twats.

Tompkins Square Park, 9:19 a.m., Dec. 11

14 shopping days left until there are no more shopping days left

Today and next Saturday at dba.... via Patell and Waterman’s History of New York.




Grieve: Crap, is is time for xmas already?

Bryan on December 10, 2010 at 7:26 pm
“Crap, is is time for xmas already?”

Hence holiday fair IN A BAR.

Ah!

Also this weekend

Duran Duran still draws a crowd

Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes stopped by Mark Ronson’s Authentic Sh*t on East Village Radio tonight... and... Wooooo!




Read more about it here.

Stepping away for a few minutes — keep an eye on things

Sunshine on a gloomy day

Great shot from inside the Sunshine Theater on Houston via JDX.

So... how's the M15 Select Bus service faring?

A few days ago EV Grieve reader Mike checked in with a report on the M15 Select Bus... been awhile since we heard anything about it...

So while waiting to buy ride and get receipt, I chatted with both the woman in front and back of me. Both of them loved the Select Bus! The biggest negative continues to be the lines that form for the machines to get tickets during rush hour. And that lady this morning who apparently decided that she didn't need to wait in line like everyone else, even when she cut right in front of me and I explained that the queue of people wasn't just folks fond of loitering — she acted dumbfounded and was not responsive, but hopefully that was from shame more than from being an asshole, which is how it seemed.

Rest in Peace M15 Limted Bus, Long Live M15 Select Bus!

And this morning, Mike noticed that the MTA looks to be installing MORE machines at 14th Street and First Avenue... which could help alleviate those rush-hour ticket lines...

Shit Week continues: Majestic willow tree butchered on Eighth Street

An EV Grieve reader out walking his dog this morning was shocked to find that the majestic willow on Eighth Street near Avenue C....



... had been hacked down... seemingly overnight...





Per the reader: "maybe it was diseased, but it looked perfectly healthy to me."

Melanie just posted a photo of this willow at East Village Corner. In the comments I said that I loved this tree.

UPDATE:
A reader sends along another photo, noting that "it looks worse in the daylight."



Ugh.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The willow trees of Loisaida

11th Street condo owners want to chop down this willow tree

Fade away

The mourning continues for the Mars Bar... Yesterday's various news account all but confirm what no one really wanted to acknowledge... the Mars Bar is going away... as early as the spring... Per Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo:

Circumstances outside the construction timeline — which could take as many as three years or more from the bar's closure until its theoretical reopening — could make it difficult for the diminutive dive to see new life.

The above photo is of Roy, a Mars Bar employee for years... outside the bar that he opened every morning for as long as anyone can remember... He passed away in June. Thanks to Eliesha Grant for permission to use this photo.