[Updated] Joe Strummer would have been 60 today

John Graham Mellor, better known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was born on this date in 1952.

Updated: Today at 4, East Village Radio has a special Strummer birthday tribute, hosted by Jesse Malin. Details here.

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And now... an EVG repost from Dec. 22, 2011...

Joe Strummer died on this date in 2002. He reportedly had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He was 50.

In November 2003, REVOLT painted a mural in honor of the former Clash frontman on the side of Niagara on Seventh Street at Avenue A ... seen here in this video featuring Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros singing "Redemption Song."




Since then, I've taken far too many photos of the mural, which REVOLT updated in February 2009...


Look, Smokin' Joe! (Eh, sorry...)



There's always something comforting about seeing the mural there... looking rather calm about anything going on around it...




Let's end this with a Strummer solo number from Aki Kaurismäki's "I Hired a Contract Killer" from 1990...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe Strummer gets a splash of Niagara

Joe Strummer gets a new look, skyline

[Updated] You can now sit outside at Nicoletta

Outside seating is now available at Nicoletta, beginning tonight! Enjoy your pizza outdoors in@ Nicoletta instagr.am/p/OkPbIxQ_Xw/

— Nicoletta Restaurant (@NicolettaNYC) August 20, 2012

Not real cozy-looking just yet here on Second Avenue and East 10th Street. And is that police tape?

Updated:

A reader walked by around 7:45 tonight and noted two tables were occupied so far ...

They'll likely need to add some greenery to the space a la DBGB to make it look a little more inviting...

Smoke scare on East Fourth Street

Earlier this afternoon... passersby spotted the smoke coming from the mobile boiler here on East Fourth Street at Avenue A (adjacent to the Ageloff Towers) ... Bobby Williams reports that the FDNY quickly responded ... no word on any damage to the boiler just yet...

Icon EV now renting on East Fourth Street; anyone in the market for a 6-bedroom apartment?

[Bobby Williams]

The gut-renovated buildings at 326-328 E. Fourth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D have a name — Icon EV. And the first units from developer Terrence Lowenberg and penthouse-making architect Ramy Issac are are now available for rent starting Sept. 1.

Here's the listing for the buildings over at Icon Realty:

Icon EV is a Brand New Boutique Rental Building located on East 4th street surrounded by a wide array of unique shops, restaurants, bars, and live music venues in New York City's famous East Village.

Distinctive architectural features such as black and white tiled hallways, oak paneled walls and elegant lighting were incorporated into the building's design to create a Classic New York Atmosphere. Residents can unwind, entertain and enjoy unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline from the building's Roof Top Sun Deck.

Apartments Feature:
• Open Gourmet Kitchens with carrera marble countertops, and stainless steel appliances

• Recessed lighting, crown and baseboard molding, and exposed brick walls

• Oversized windows which provide sun filled living spaces

• Wide plank ebony hardwood floors Marble bathrooms with wengay vanities

• Marble bathrooms with wengay vanities

• Premium Bosch Washer and Dryers

• Access to Roof top Sun Deck

Here's how the apartments look...

We found listings for a three-bedroom apartment priced at $4,250 and a two-bedroom unit for $3,500 at No. 326.

No. 328 seems to be the dormier of the pair. There's a six-bedroom apartment listed at Streeteasy for $8,000 ... and a more modest four-bedroom home for $6,000.

As the Times noted in September 2010, the 170-year-old buildings here (now with two extra floors) were an artists’ collective and burial society called the Uranian Phalanstery and First New York Gnostic Lyceum Temple ... started in the East Village in the late 1950s by the artists Richard Oviet Tyler and Dorothea Tyler.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Historic East Fourth Street artists' collective soon to be condos

Two side-by-side townhouses on East Fourth Street await your renovation

City doesn't give a shit about these historic East Village townhouses

Almost working around the clock on developing 326-328 E. Fourth St.

'Stop the noise!'

[Bobby Williams]

As the sign posted on East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C shows ... there is ample noise coming from ... somewhere.

If the person/people who left the put up the sign would like to expound on this in the comments ... Bar noise? Renovation noise? Rooftop BBQ woo?

Wedding crashers

An EVG reader shared these photos from Saturday ... when a wedding party briefly descended upon First Park on East 12th Street near First Avenue...

"Kind of funny ... they all ran onto the active park to the confusion of the skaters there, took about 10 minutes of photos, and then ran off before posing with some of the skate kids."

...and we nearly had a heelflip... Impressive!

Bento Burger has closed

Bento Burger opened here on East Second Street near First Avenue back in April 2011 ... the Asian-style roadhouse specializing in hamburgers was part of the Lucky Cheng's complex...

...and it's now closed...

... previously, the space was home to the BBQ joint Marfa... and, before that, the tiki-themed Waikiki Wally's ... (whose banner is still visible atop the building...) ... and La Nouvelle Justine ...

Meanwhile, as you probably know, Lucky Cheng's is moving to West 52th Street, as Grub Street first reported, in the coming weeks (six weeks was the word Michael Musto heard at the Voice the other day...)

Previously.

Joey Pepperoni bringing his $1 pizza to First Avenue

A branch of Joey Pepperoni's Pizza is opening here on First Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street... (this space was most recently Ikura Sushi...) There are a few Joey Pepperoni locations around the city... Midtown Lunch reviewed the $1 cheese slice at the Tribeca outpost.

The verdict: This was a good piece of pizza, and when you add in the $1 price tag it’s kind of amazing. The crust was really crisp and the cheese plentiful and slightly browned in spots.

And what's the verdict on the Joey Pepperoni mascot?

And the space next to Joey P's is for rent too...

h/t @robbyohara

There goes the neighborhood... again (again)

Spotted on the plywood at the under-renovation Cabrini Center on Avenue B and East Fifth Street...

21 E. First St. now tall enough for floor numbers

Continuing to note the progress at 21 E. First St. at Second Avenue... this is from the East First Street side...

Numbers go to 8 ... and it looks as if the crew is starting on the 10th floor... on the the way to 12...

Black Iron Burger back open after brief remodeling hiatus

Black Iron Burger on East Fifth Street near Avenue B reopened this weekend after a five-week long renovation... about four weeks longer than originally advertised... which caused a little concern among the restaurant's fans...

Week in Grieview

[The beauty in Tompkins Square Park this morning]

Vacating 32 Avenue C (Wednesday)

Juice Press opening another East Village location (Monday)

OLSEN TWIN ALERT (Friday)

Branding for 51 Astor Place (Thursday)

St. Mark's Bookshop meets crowdfunding goal to help move (Tuesday)

UFOs (Sunday)

What an East Ninth Street parking lot will look like one of these days (Wednesday)

Brick Lane Curry House still planning expansion on Second Avenue (Tuesday)

"Boardwalk Empire" filmed on East Fourth Street (Monday)

315 E. 10th St. now renting (Wednesday)

Fares reopening on Avenue A (Tuesday)

BaoBQ closes on First Avenue (Monday)

Blackbird is now open on Avenue B (Sunday)

NYPD shoots dog on East 14th Street (Monday, warning: graphic image) The dog is in "stable condition (Tuesday)

Gothamist posted the video showing the shooting and the chaotic aftermath. It's a 9-minute video that you can find here.

Here is a 75-second version that shows the shooting... some people have been curious to see the video to help them understand what was happening... please keep in mind that the video is graphic and shows the officer shooting the dog in the first 8 seconds of the start time...

Perhaps this is a subtle hint that tags here are no longer really welcome

The wall here on East Second Street at Avenue C (the side of The Stone) receives its fair share of tagging attention... someone paints the wall... only to be tagged again (familiar story) ...

Anyway, so there's this on the wall now.

When everyone has to be the life of the party

East Sixth Street last night.

Ooh, foxy lady

Spotted along First Avenue...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

East 11th Street burglar worked for real-estate company

The New York Times today has more about the purple-gloved man the NYPD arrested for twice breaking into an apartment at 516. E. 11th St. ... After a burglary in June that showed no signs of a forced entry, the tenant set up a surveillance camera ... which led police to apprehend 24-year-old convicted felon Piotr Pasciak in Brooklyn...

Michael Wilson at the Times interviewed Pasciak at Riker's ... where Pasciak admitted that he is a heroin addict... here's an excerpt from the article that explains how he came to break into No. 516...

In April, working for the real estate company, he was showing apartments all over Manhattan. It was hard work, and after a particularly stressful week with a prospective tenant who ultimately did not sign a lease, he left and soon returned to his $50- to $100-a-day heroin habit.

His money ran out. When he left his job, he said, he kept the keys to the apartments he was showing. One of them was on East 11th Street. Someone had moved in. On June 12, he rang the doorbell and, satisfied no one was home, entered with the key and stole the video games.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” he said. He refused to name the real estate employer or say what he did with the electronics, other than that they were used to get heroin. The building’s super said various real estate brokers showed apartments there.

Rain delay

Avenue A and East 11th Street during this morning's rain shower...

Mr. Romney ordered a blue sports wagon, where is it?

The anti-Romney "Vacation"-themed wheat paste makes an appearance on the plywood adjacent to the First Avenue Rite Aid... BoweryBoogie had spotted these back in the spring on the Lower East Side...

Meanwhile, I'll get to the bottom of this. Davenport!

Despite predicament, Mickey Mouse still smiling

We spotted this tragic scene earlier this week on Avenue A at East 10th Street ... some poor child is now Mickey balloon-less...

At this point, we do not know if the balloon was lost before or after its intended destination. Perhaps an errant delivery person accidentally let go of the balloon on the way to the party ... or, after the celebration, the excited child let the balloon slip from his or her grasp... only to see it tangled above Avenue A ... slowly losing air... but Mickey, still stuck as of this morning, is managing this crisis. Still smiling.

This morning outside Lucky Cheng's

Lunatic fringe

Eh. Seems like a good weekend song. Fun Boy Three circa 1981 with "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)."

Noted

Spotted on the plywood outside the incoming David Schwimmer Estate on East Sixth Street...

You can now expect Citi Bikes in March, maybe

[Citi Bike NYC]

From a DOT news release...

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), bike share operator New York City Bike Share (NYCBS) today announced that the Citi Bike system will launch in March 2013 with an initial phase of 7,000 bikes implemented at 420 stations. The timeline, agreed to by all parties, does not affect the Citi Bike sponsorship structure, which uses $41 million in private funding from Citi to underwrite the system for five years and ensures that NYCBS will split profits with the City.

“New York City demands a world-class bike share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “The enthusiasm for this program continues to grow and we look forward to bringing this affordable new transportation option to New Yorkers without cost to taxpayers.”

(Via Curbed)

Things that you don't do at the Stage: Talk on a cellphone

EVG reader Paul D. shares an anecdote from the Stage Restaurant, the beloved eatery on Second Avenue...

A young guy puts dry-cleaning on stool next to me and I realize, when he gets on his cellphone to chat... that he's the first person I can remember blabbing on his phone at this venerable institution in the years I've been going there.

OK, others might have received calls and had a brief conversation, but I can't remember anyone initiating a recreational conversation. I wanted to tell him that he was violating an unspoken taboo, but he was speaking very softly, though his conversation was predictably annoying. The other oblivious thing was his asking for sweet-potato fries (not) in this classic joint.

If there's a moral, it's having "a little more respect for what is already here"* aka when-in-Rome. Also (amazingly) there are still places and parts of the culture that have resisted the can't-be-alone-for-a-moment tech plague

*from a Times story about Montauk’s Hipster Fatigue

Anyway, why would you want to talk on your phone here? There's always too much to take in sitting at one of the stools (16? 18?), like watching Roman work the counter... getting to the coffee and back to the register in 2.4 seconds... or listening to the snippets of conversations going on, like the man, the other afternoon, telling his friend about an acquaintance in the Bronx. "He doesn't have a bed. His table is his bed."

He repeats this several times for it to sink in for his friend. His table is his bed.

Report: Historic Anglo-Italianate townhouse on East 10th Street to serve as Olsen twin love nest

You know those beautiful homes at 123-125 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenues, the single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses? These.


After nearly four years on the market, Crain's reported in June that an unnamed buyer picked up the five-story, 4,200-square-foot home at No. 123 close to its asking price of $6.25 million. (No. 125 remains on the market.)

Today, Page Six reveals who bought the house: Olivier Sarkozy, who is the half-brother of the former French president as well as the beau of Olsen twin Mary-Kate.

Per Page Six, he "plans to share the palatial 146-year-old love nest with Olsen, sources said. Sarkozy is buying it because he and Olsen “like that it is old,” a real estate insider told The Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil. The 4,200-square-foot home, built the year Abraham Lincoln took office, was designed by architect James Renwick Jr., best-known for St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Smithsonian."

And!

"The sale has brokers wondering if Mary-Kate’s sister Ashley will snap up the house’s twin."

[Heh — twin]

Anyway, here's a look inside the place from a previous post. Meanwhile, we have some Photoshopping to do...

This is the smallest kitchen(ette) that I've probably ever seen

It's in a nice little studio ($1,595) on East 13th Street ... here's the listing ...

To clarify, I've been in apartments that didn't have a kitchen... well, at least one with functioning appliances. Sort of a Bill Cunningham thing ("Who needs one?") where people used the kitchen for storage, etc. And I've been in living spaces, like some sort of quasi loft, that never had a kitchen to begin with ...

But this might be the smallest advertised kitchen(ette) that I've seen...

Anyway, do you really need a kitchen? Maybe just a mini fridge by the bed for beer or Powerade? Maybe some bologna and cheese?

Another gut renovation for 103 Second Ave.

An EVG reader passes along word about the gut renovation going on inside 103 Second Ave. at East Sixth St., most recently home to the recently gut-renovated Vandaag, which closed back in May.

We've lost track of how many eateries have been in and out of here in just the last, oh, 15 years... and each time, there's a gut renovation, which is the EVG Keyword of the Day. No big deal. You put in a new restaurant. You gut renovate the place. Just what you have to do. Until the building falls down or something. And the Vandaagers put a lot of time and attention into the interior. And someone new comes along and starts over...

Anyway, Eater had the scoop that the address will soon be home to the first "brick and mortar location" of Mighty Quinn's, a BBQ food truck, specializing in sustainable smoked meats, favored by food truck foodies in Brooklyn.

They will open after the gut renovation.

And now, photos of a 5-inch slug on East 4th Street

Via EVG reader Steven Matthews.

Mystery Lot plywood expands

Hey now. The Mystery Lot Plywood is eating up parts of the East 14th Street sidewalk ...

Last week!

This week!

It's called the Plywood Creep. Please let us know when it reaches the curb.

The Eat Me flower box on St. Mark's Place doesn't look so good

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Hmm, well, something has apparently taken a bite of out one of the two Eat Me Flower Boxes along St. Mark's Place here between Avenue A and First Avenue ... Perhaps it's from all the attention that the fake human kidney received ... either way, Jim Power has another project on his hands...