A scene from the L train platform

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Purple reign

They Might Be Giants with "Purple Toupee" from 1988.

Previously on EV Grieve:
On the phone with John Linnell of They Might Be Giants

'The future is unironed'

Photo from this afternoon on East Seventh Street and Avenue A... headline courtesy of Shawn Chittle via Facebook.

Relief supply giveaway tomorrow at Dry Dock Park

From the EV Grieve inbox...

American Red Cross contributes 50,000 new coats, scarves, boots and more in unprecedented partnership with churches and faith-based groups.

Who: Abounding Grace Ministries, Trinity Grace Church, Somebody Cares America, New York City Christian Resource Center, and American Red Cross

What: Pop-Up Relief Site Winter Clothes Giveaway

When: Saturday, December 1, 9 am - 5 pm while supplies last

Where: Dry Dock Park at Avenue D and 10th Street

Lower East Side churches and volunteers will distribute 5,000 coats, scarves, boots and other winter supplies at Dry Dock Park on Saturday, December 1, in the shadow of the power plant that darkened lower Manhattan during Super Storm Sandy. The only Manhattan location is one of eleven regional hubs created by a unique partnership between American Red Cross, Somebody Cares America, New York Christian Resource Center, and local faith-based groups that collectively will distribute 50,000 coats and more this weekend to communities most directly impacted by the storm.

On Friday afternoon the American Red Cross shipment will arrive in a 53’ tractor trailer which volunteers will unload, sort and prepare for distribution on Saturday. Dry Dock Park will open to the public on December 1 at 9am, and will remain open as long as supplies last. Recipients must be present at the park to receive supplies.

For more information about how and where to volunteer, and what happened in the days immediately following the storm, visit the ministries’ shared blog.

Prepping Adler for Wylie Dufresne

As you might have heard, noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne (of wd~50 on Clinton Street) is opening a place at the former Plum Pizzeria at 157 Second Avenue. As Grub Street first noted, the place will be called Adler, and serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails."

Today, as you can see in the photo, workers continue to de-Plum Pizzeria the exterior...

This car blocked the Second Avenue bike lane for most of the morning

This morning, EVG reader John sent along a photo of a bike-lane obstruction on Second Avenue just below East 10th Street...

Two hours later, the car was still there...

The owner of the car has something apparently to do with the construction job at 154 Second Ave.

Here come the (unprotected?) East Houston bike lanes

Via a tweet by @felixsalmon this morning ... we see that the long-discussed East Houston Street bike lanes are on the way...

The $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction started in the fall of 2010, and is to include wider medians, bigger sidewalks, fewer traffic lanes and bike lanes... (Earlier this year, DNAinfo reported that the construction would now last through spring 2014...)

Back in 2009, Streetsblog pointed out that "instead of installing a physically protected path for cyclists, the city plans to paint a buffered, Class 2 lane" on East Houston...

From that Streetsblog article:

Currently, 70 percent of drivers on East Houston Street speed, according to studies conducted by Transportation Alternatives. "It's hard to imagine that paint will offer the kind of protection mainstream New Yorkers will need to feel safe biking on this crucial, yet dangerous corridor," said TA's Wiley Norvell. "The city has innovative physically-protected designs on hand, and to not use them on Houston would be a huge missed opportunity."

Based on the top photo, it appears that the bike lanes won't be protected...

This is the official word on the project via the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center:

To improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists along East Houston Street, DDC will be installing a number of traffic-calming measures. One significant measure is the neck-down. A neck-down is an extension of the curb that shortens the crosswalk distance while at the same time requiring motorists to reduce their speed to turn onto a sidestreet. In addition to the neck-downs, medians will be extended into the crosswalk creating a visible traffic-calming measure and safe refuge area for pedestrians. Other improvements include:

• Dedicated Bicycle Lanes and Bike Racks: The lanes will create a safer environment for bicyclists by calming traffic; while the bike racks will encourage bicycle use by providing users a safe storage option.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Coming soon to East Houston: Construction, hell, rodent control stations

Long-threatened East Houston reconstruction starting this month

Marta reunited with her family

Early Wednesday morning, the NYPD found a woman outside 145 Avenue A. She was disoriented and did not know her whereabouts, per the NYPD. An EMS crew took her to Beth Israel Hospital ...

A few minutes ago, the NYPD sent out this tweet...

twitpic.com/bhajpq - *Update* The woman has been re-united with her family.

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 30, 2012

We posted the original item on Facebook, where one EVG friend recognized the woman as Marta, her former neighbor on East Ninth Street...

Q-and-A with Anonymous, author of 'Diary of an Oxygen Thief' — and East Village resident

"Diary of an Oxygen Thief" was a darkly humorous, self-published autobiographical novel from 2006 about a philandering advertising executive who was also your basic alcoholic and misogynist.

Anonymous is back with "Chameleon On A Kaleidoscope," a sequel of sorts in which the protagonist returns, though this time he is finding his thrills as an online sex addict.

The book, released earlier in the year on Kindle, is available as a hard copy starting next week. (Find more information about both books here.)

Turns out that Anonymous lives in the neighborhood. So via email, we asked Anonymous a few questions about the new novel, self-publishing and life in the East Village.

While writing "Diary of an Oxygen Thief," were you already looking ahead to a second novel picking up where this one left off?

My original intention was to write a book that felt like somebody’s diary. I wanted to give the reader the impression they were eavesdropping. But of course a diary has no finite ending and so it became obvious that there would be a second. That’s when "Chameleon On a Kaleidoscope was born. And now I’m already working on a third in the series; a prequel to "Diary Of An Oxygen Thief." Collectively they’re known as "The Oxygen Thief Diaries."

As a writer, do you envision continuing to remain Anonymous?

Being anonymous is part of the story. I love that there’s no cheesey photo on the backcover and that we don’t have to hear about how the writer lives in Connecticut or San Francisco or Brooklyn or wherever with his two dogs and a cat. Fuck all that. In this case the story is the hero.

Also writing anonymously allows me to inhabit the reader more effectively. Because we can’t Google anyone we’re forced to make up our own minds about what’s happening in the narrative. It actually makes for a more satisfying experience.

What is your top advice for someone considering self-publishing his or her work?

My best advice to a self-published writer is to try to say something that established publishers can’t or won’t. This way your content and marketing merge into one.

How long have you lived in the East Village?

I’ve lived here altogether now for about 10 years — with a break of three years when I moved to Amsterdam. Mostly I love it. I’ve always wanted to live here and I‘m very lucky to have found a rent-controlled building that welcome the likes of me. The area around Tompkins Square is my favorite place in the world. The Helmholtzplatz in Berlin is a close second but only because it reminds me so much of Tompkins Square Park.

Do you have a favorite place to write here? Are you able to accomplish much sitting at, say, a café or a library?

I’m not sure I’m socially equipped to sit in a cafe these days. And I don’t just mean emotionally. Mind you it might just be laptop-envy on my part. But when I do venture out, one of my favorite places is Café Pick Me Up on Avenue A and 9th Street. Perfect for people-watching or more honestly, girl-watching.

Most of my writing is extracted in private in a darkened corner of my fur-lined lair. In fact, writer seems far too pleasant a verb to describe what I do; word-worrier is more accurate.

Do you think the East Village provides a nurturing/creative atmosphere for artistic endeavors? Do you find inspiration here?

The East Village as a neighborhood and my building in particular have been hugely influential in my being able to write fulltime. I’m lucky enough to live in a rent-controlled HDFC that welcomes only artistic tenants so that’s certainly a nurturing environment and since a local woman was murdered in my apartment it came with inspiration ensuite. I can’t wait to write that story.

But let me answer the unasked question here. Yes. The East Village is still cool! I like to tease people from Park Slope and Williamsburg and Bushwick by saying I live a block away from Tompkins Square in West Brooklyn and let them figure it out.

Now what's going on with the Nino's space?

So, Nino's Pizza on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place closed sometime after Superstorm Sandy... and we heard multiple stories about its future ... Then! A few days later, a sanitized, woody Nino's reopened, but the place didn't seem the same. One reader said, "It looks like the inside of a pine coffin."

Plus, the pizza was a little different. And people didn't recognize the workers. Now, in the last few days, the place has closed again. Looks as if workers are refurbishing the interior again... (maybe the communal table will become a reality?)

Anyone know what's going on here...? Workers have painted the exterior and removed the Nino's lettering...

Finally, a random find on YouTube ... a video shot at Nino's after news circulated about Whiney Houston's death this past February...

Looking for where James Bond star Daniel Craig lives in the East Village

The Daily Mail goes looking for some info on Daniel Craig's East Village home and other stuff ... the paper speaks with a "bored-looking concierge" who denies that the James Bond star lives in the "low-key building" in question.

But! Some locals blab. Per the article:

Step into the grimy street outside and the locals are positively falling over themselves to talk about their famous neighbour.

'Of course that’s his place — we see him going in and out all the time,' drawls the lady in the next-door tattoo parlour.

'I did a double-take the first time I saw him in the supermarket,' adds star-struck Debra Johansen. 'He had a flat cap on and he had his head down. He doesn’t look at anyone.'

Not that he and his wife Rachel Weisz will be spending too much time here.

Work is understood to be ongoing on a house in Regent’s Park, where they intend to set up a more permanent home.

...

Back in the UK, the couple have also been spotted house-hunting in Dorset, where they have reportedly briefed estate agents to find them a property with 'a minimum of six acres to ensure complete privacy'.

If celebrity real estate is your thing ... Any guesses where he lives? I thought it was here, though there's isn't a tattoo parlor next door. (And he's not here. Yet.)

Noted

Good Urban Etiquette Sign at the Tompkins Square Park dog run via @delcecato ...