New Year's resolutions: Eat more fries at Ray's

One resolution that we won't break. Photo of Ray by @gerryvisco via the Ray's Candy Store Facebook page.

Rumors: 2 Bros. Pizza is opening another East Village location

BaoBQ closed here on First Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street in August. The for rent signs are down... and someone put up black trashbags on the windows...

We've from several different tipsters now that a 2 Bros. Pizza will take over this space... there hasn't been any official confirmation on this from 2 Bros., who continue to expand in the city... If this is true, then this could be one more reason why Vinny Vincenz Pizza close by on First Avenue is now selling a $1 slice, as noted yesterday.

Of course, there's already a lot of cheap pizza right around here, from Papa John's and Joey Pepperoni across the street to the other Joey Pepperoni's and 7-Eleven around the way on East 14th Street...

The first 2 Bros. opened on St. Mark's Place in 2008.

And now, a photo of Morrissey not looking so happy on First Avenue

Several people spotted Morrissey in the East Village yesterday... on First Avenue with two friends looking for a cab. EVG reader Krist Sorge sent me the above photo ... via Instagram.

BoweryBoogie posted a photo here.

As BB notes, the former the lyricist and vocalist of The Smiths was last spotted around these parts coming to the aid of a woman who passed out at the Strand in September.

5 nights of Nick Zedd and the Cinema of Transgression

From the EVG inbox...

NICK ZEDD & THE CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION
January 15-19
9pm-late all nights

Glasshouse 246 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211(G to Broadway, M to Lorimer, or L/G to Metropolitan-Lorimer)

Entrance is free (suggested donation of $10 at the bar)

Leading figure in the avant-garde cinema and NYC underground scene of the 1980’s and 1990’s; Iconic filmmaker, writer, and painter, Nick Zedd returns to New York City for a festival dedicated to his work, providing New Yorkers with the rare opportunity to meet and experience this body of work.

In addition to coining the term “Cinema of Transgression” and critically framing the work of his contemporaries (as creator of Underground Film Bulletin from 1984–90 and writer of the Cinema of Transgression manifesto), Zedd is known for his low-budget films, paintings, and mid-2000’s public television series with Reverend Jen, Electric Elf.

For this event Zedd curated a special program with screenings of most of his works since the 80’s and hosting works of some of his peers in the Cinema of Transgression movement including films by Nicholas Abrahams, Tessa Hughes-Freeland & Holly Adams, Angelique Bosio, Richard Kern, Richard Klemann, Casandra Stark and documentary films by Mary Jordan and Andreas Troeger.

Here's a Nick Zedd Tumblr with more details of what's playing each night.

Zedd lived in the East Village for years... these days he's down in Mexico City with Monica Cassanova and their son Zerak. Here's an excerpt from Whitehot Magazine circa December 2011 on his decision to move:

I could have stayed in New York, but after awhile it became a self-imposed purgatory, going to court, fighting frivolous evictions and continually winning against a psychotic landlord, accepting the ugliness of gentrification and becoming more isolated as the city became a party to which I wasn’t invited. New people to collaborate with kept me there for decades; but they got fewer and farther between. Every scene disintegrated into petty backstabbing or was short-circuited by landlord harassment. A new crop of faux bohemians arrived as part of a sad, fucked-up Simulation. There were so many normal people around I became agoraphobic. They took over my building, paying exhorbitant rents, complaining about the sound of my feet.

Living in NY, your mind gets clouded by the struggle to survive with pointless tension; then you convince yourself you’ve accomplished something special by having one hour of peace a week that anywhere else would be a daily occurence. We put up with it for so long because we know that everywhere else in the country is even more boring. A false sense of self- righteousness infects New Yorkers after years of accepting miserable conditions, bad service and aesthetic ugliness in order to be part of a myth. The City is a good place for roaches and bedbugs but for humans it’s living death. What kind of a city would let the Mars Bar close?!

Gnome alone

Tompkins Square Park today. Leftover entertainment from the MulchFest this past weekend?

Photo by Bobby Williams

Rejected headlines:
Take me gnome tonight
Gnome for the holidays

On such a gloomy winter's spring day

Took this at East 10th Street and Avenue D yesterday ... Posted it on Facebook... thought I'd put it here too...

[Updated] St. Brigid's reopens on Jan. 27

[Photo from Jan. 6.]

An EVG reader passes along word that the first mass at the restored church on Avenue B and East Eighth Street will take place on Jan. 27 ... Nearly 11 years have passed since the last mass in the main church (there were services in the school basement next door until 2004).

The church was thisclose to being demolished ... thanks to a group of hearty volunteers and parishioners who never lost hope... they were able to save the church from an after-life as a dorm or condo.

In May 2008, news broke that an anonymous donor gave $20 million to help refurbish the church... Per The New York Times: "The gift includes $10 million to restore the building, at 119 Avenue B; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish “so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community”; and $8 million to support the St. Brigid’s School and other Catholic schools in need."

All this seems like a hundred years ago...


Much more on St. Brigid's in the coming days/weeks... there's a lot to discuss...

Previously.

Updated 1-14 9:30 a.m.
We had also asked Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, for more information. He confirmed the Jan. 27 date. The dedication mass is at 5 p.m. However, an important note: The mass, presided by Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, is invitation-only for registered parishioners of St. Brigid's-St. Emeric's Church.

[Updated] 3 photos of 51 Astor Place from Jan. 12

Updated 1-14
Well! Turns out that The Wall Street Journal has a feature today on 51 Astor Place. (Thanks to the reader for the link). The article's headline: "Mixed Messages In New Geometry At Cooper Square."

To some excerpts!

Says developer Edward J. Minskoff: "This was a classic case of an opportunity to take a wonderful site and really put a special building there. It's dramatic, it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing."

And!

"When I moved here, there were buildings that were not known by their addresses. Lever House, the GM building, the Pan-Am building. I think 51 Astor Place has the opportunity to go down in history as to be referred to by the name of its tenants," Mr. Minskoff says, though he has declined to name any potential tenants with whom he is in discussions. "I don't like to build mediocre boxes. I want to build buildings that will be great on year 1 and great on year 30."

The structure going up at 51 Astor should not be viewed as mediocre, but it's a far cry from the type of ground-breaking design that earns a place in the pantheon of the city's name-brand buildings.

Previously.

Duane Reade's First Avenue Grand Opening is Friday

The time (heh) is coming for the Brand New Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street... the Duane Reade around the corner is relocating... per the sign on the soon-to-be-moving Duane Reade...

Meanwhile, we looked in the store to see if anything was on sale.

Not yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking: Former bank branch to become a Duane Reade on First Avenue

Social Tees has moved into the former Gimme Gimme Records space

[Bobby Williams]

As you may have noticed, Social Tees has a new home now over on East Fifth Street next door to the 9th Precinct ... in the former home of Gimme Gimme Records. Slum Goddess noted this move last week. (Read her post here.)

Social Tees had moved into an East Second Street storefront in December 2011. And that Second Street space is on the rental market. Per the Massey Knakal listing, "most uses considered." Rent for the 950-foor-square space is available upon request.

Gimme Gimme closed last fall after being Cromanized. The store, which had celebrated its 18th year here, has reopened in Los Angeles. If you happen to be in the area...

[Via Facebook]

The week in the life of some plywood on Avenue B and East 7th Street

[Via Robert Miner]

Last Tuesday, the above plywood arrived on the corner of Avenue B and East Seventh Street ... outside Amaran, the home-goods store that is closing soon ...

Work permits pointed to something about: "ENCLOSE A SMALL PORTION OF THE EXTERIOR WALL."

By Thursday, there was a partial stop work order. "THE SIDEWALK SHED ALLOWS 19 INCHES OF PASSAGE. IT WRAPS AROUND THE BUILDING AND WAS TO ONLY BE ON 7 ST. ONE INCH SCREW ARE STICKING OUT OF THE PLYWOOD."

OK. On Friday, workers arrived to move the plywood off the sidewalk...

Now, perhaps, all is well.

As for Amaran, they have the misfortune of looking as if they're already closed. The store's last day isn't until Jan. 27, per the homemade signs on the plywood...

EV Grieve Eatery Etc.: 1st sign of Pride and Joy; $1 slices at Vinny Vincenz; and more

As we first reported in November, the former Lucky Cheng's space on First Avenue will become the first NYC outpost for renowed BBQ chef Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ... and signs are up to help direct traffic for deliveries...

... we don't recall the part about "draft house" and "honky-tonk" ... why does that put the fear in us?

Anyway, hopefully Pride & Joy will have good ventilation...

-----

You've noticed the proliferation of $1 (or 99-cent!) slice places around... especially on East 14th Street and nearby First Avenue... Papa John's and Joey Pepperoni both offer cheap slices on First ... and on East 14th Street, there's the new 99-cent place as well as another Joey Pepperoni... not to mention 7-Eleven...

So it may not be a huge surprise that Vinny Vincenz Pizza on First Avenue near East 14th Street is now selling a $1 slice, as Crazy Eddie pointed out last week...

Well, we'll take anything from Vinny's anytime over these other plastic factories...

-----

Several people have asked if we know when the new Nevada Smiths space is opening on Third Avenue near East 13th Street... to be honest, we've lost track of what's happening here... DNAinfo got an inside look at the new space last summer, and the projected opening date was August at that time... According to a Sept. 5 post on the Nevada Smiths Facebook page: "The new location should be ready by October." A Dec. 22 post said that they'd be open in January...

Here's how it looked this past Thursday...

Meanwhile, you can still watch the matches at Nevada's temp home at Webster Hall...

Previously on EV Grieve:
100 Third Ave. looks to be Nevada Smith's new home

Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smith's

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

100 Third Avenue's lonely add-on

[Updated] Reports of a fire at Whole Foods Bowery

Word is spreading late this afternoon that there was a fire inside the Whole Foods Bowery...

What's going on at the Whole Foods on Houston? Ambulances, FDNY on scene. @boweryboogie @evgrieve

— Matt Friedlander (@MattyFLES) January 13, 2013

Not sure of the cause just yet... There seems to be a lot of confusion about what happened...

Fire in whole foods. Not a single person including us took the alarms seriously until the sprinklers came on... twitter.com/jameschororos/…

— James Chororos (@jameschororos) January 13, 2013

BoweryBoogie has collected information here.

More information as it becomes available...

Updated 9:09

You may have heard there was a fire at Bowery - luckily it was small & all are safe. The Bowery store will reopen very soon, 30 min ETA

— Whole Foods NYC (@wholefoodsnyc) January 14, 2013

Gothamist has a video from inside the store here.

Week in Grieview

It was a busy week. We received some really excellent tips. Thank you for sharing. We love tips. Which you can send here. We also received many comments. Thank you for sharing your opinions, making a joke and being part of all this...

Street fight at memorial service of teen slain for his jacket (Wednesday, 27 comments)

Is Ben Shaoul unloading some of his East Village properties? (Thursday)

Max closes on Avenue B (Monday)

Those anti 7-11 stickers (Tuesday, 72 comments)

Boulton & Watt opens (Thursday, 32 comments)

Second on Second is closing (Monday)

Coyote Ugly turning 20 (Tuesday)

Out and About with Lee Schramm (Wednesday)

Ukrainian Christmas, and a look at the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (Monday)

Aerial Moose Head (Friday)

Remembering Elvis Presley in NYC (Tuesday)

Those two new floors for 205 Avenue A (Monday)

The future of East 14th Street and Avenue C (Friday)

If you're reading this, then you probably have the flu

Just jumping on the Scary Flu Headlines Bandwagon.

According to the CDC, we're having a flu epidemic. As you probably already know. And Gov. Cuomo, who waited until last week to get a really public flu shot, declared a state of emergency. (Aren't you really supposed to get your flu shot in November?)

The Post, leading the way in we're-all-gonna-die-from-the-flu headlines, reported that the Upper West Side and East Harlem are experiencing the most "flu-like" symptoms in Manhattan. Other high risk neighborhoods include: the East Village. Uh-oh! (We also lead the pack with the most "woo-like" symptoms.)

Yes, we all should be taking this flu business seriously. Still. Gail Collins provided some level-headed thinking in the Times yesterday:

"It’s hard for the media, or the elected officials who are currently terrifying their constituents with dire flu warnings, to know where to draw the line between encouraging preparedness and scaring the public out of its wits."

And!

“We have an epidemic of flu every year,” said the New York City health commissioner, Thomas Farley. If there are alarming headlines, he added, it’s because public officials are “trying to get out the message to get your vaccine.” In a phone interview, Farley explained that the city declares an epidemic when more than 5 percent of the people going to emergency rooms are complaining of flu symptoms, which is unusual only in the sense that it doesn’t happen in warm weather. He also managed to work “get your vaccine” into virtually every sentence.

And people are apparently taking his advice. There's talk that you can't find a flu shot in the East Village right now... at least at drug stores.

@evgrieve are all EV drug stores really out of flu shots? 1st ave Rite Aid just said yes

— Sparber (@sparber) January 12, 2013

Well, maybe. We noticed this outside the Duane Reade on Avenue B.

Anyone else spot similar signs at other drug stores?

Meanwhile, here's everything you need to know about the flu via the CDC website.

East 12th Street now has beachfront property

Spotted this morning between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...

Fares (Sahara) Deli back open on Avenue A

[Bobby Williams]

Back in July the State seized Fares Deli on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place for "non payment of taxes." However, word came soon enough that longtime owner-operator Tony (Abdul) would be reopening the space...

EVG reader Marc Kehoe saw Tony last week in the shop, and heard that it was opening soon... albeit with a new name...

[From Friday via Bobby Williams]

Marc told us that the deli reopened yesterday...

Bring your dead Christmas trees to Tompkins Square Park, or we're mulching the police car

It is Day 2 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park ... until 2 p.m. today ... And we didn't see many many trees piled up left to mulch. So. There may not be much mulching.

Meanwhile, the gardeners have spread the mulch on parts of the Park...

..while others have spread their unwanted pizza...

[Updated] Heavy FDNY presence on Broadway; Heather Graham's bathroom candles reportedly spark blaze

Several readers are sending us photos of the FDNY responding to a situation at East 13th Street and Broadway around 10:20 tonight ... no sign of smoke or flames.... per EVG reader John who sent these shots: "something going on — every type of truck, including hazmat, is here..."

Updated:
Well! Thanks to the readers for the links... The Post reports that the fire started in actress Heather Graham's penthouse.

[Via the Post]

Per the Post:

A blazing fire in the sexy actress’ Union Square pad was sparked when burning candles left on her bathtub ignited nearby clothes, according to FDNY officials.

The fire in the 12th-floor Broadway home started at about 10 p.m. and took 45 minutes to put out.

“It was candles that maybe caught some clothes that were left near the tub,” said FDNY Chief John Bley.

Heather Graham's Bathroom Candles. Future band name?

The ides of mulch

And here's the scene after Day 1 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park...

Will there be enough to mulch tomorrow, or will we have to dig into our tax records....?

Photos by Bobby Williams.

When you chain your bike to itself on Avenue C

What do we have here on Avenue C between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street? Well, for some reason, a cyclist locked his/her bike to itself... instead if to something else, which would make it more difficult for someone to steal...

... and a few helpful neighbors left friendly notes offering some advice/warning...

Reads one: "Dumb ass. I could have stole this if I had a car."

Many thanks to EVG reader Kyle for the headline and photos via Twitter.

A 'giddy' Bloomberg's bike-share boast

From the Post today:

A two-wheeled tsunami is about to hit New York — and Mayor Bloomberg couldn’t be more pleased.

A giddy Bloomberg yesterday promised that the perpetually delayed bike-share program would flood the city’s already-packed streets with more bikes than Beijing.

“It’s going to be increased by tens of thousands,” the mayor said of the future bike-share New York on his weekly WOR radio show. “Every city that’s done this, it is phenomenally popular.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here are your East Village bike share locations, probably


h/t THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.

Donged! Penistrator proves that he doesn't need any stupid snow

Just noting some sidewalk work here on East 10th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue where that ugly new renovated building sits... and...

Oh no! A permanent sidewalk penis!

Look for a new sidewalk here soon...

This morning

Exciting items from the EVG Twitter account... where all the action is... (Follow here ... )

Breaking: Mulcher arrives for todays's Tompkins Square Park MulchFest twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

Bit of an accident here at 14th & 1st Ave. Will blame the guilty party later! twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

At the flea market at Immaculate Conception, 14th St. and 1st Ave. twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

[Updated] Winter's 'Bones'

New video from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion released this week... "Bag of Bones." And the band will be on Letterman tonight...

Speaking of Letterman... here is that clip from last night. I like Dave's reaction at the end... And Spencer's "No. 1 baby!" yell.

Noted

A scene near from Tompkins Square Park yesterday. Man in Mickey Mouse hat giving his friend a haircut.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Avenue A/Tompkins Square Park in the early morning yesterday]

Hundreds turned out yesterday to mourn Raphael Ward, the teen murdered last Friday on the Lower East Side (DNAinfo)

Reminiscence moving back to 13th and Fifth Ave. (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

As promised, Tiengarden closes for revamp (BoweryBoogie)

Sperone Westwater sues over Ian Schrager's plan to build a bigass new hotel on the Bowery (New York Post)

Some Limelight history (Flaming Pablum)

No decision yet about the new restaurant-bar at 106 Rivington (The Lo-Down)

About the alleged Washington Square bomb plotter (Gothamist)

Information for property owners of landmarked buildings (Off the Grid)

Karate Boogaloo always has good stuff here (Stupefaction)

... and via the EVG inbox...

Guided Tours of East Village Gardens, Historic Sites Open to Public Beginning Saturday, January 12, 3 PM

As part of its mission to preserve and promote scholarship of the history of urban grassroots activism in the East Village, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is offering weekly tours of community gardens and historic tenements. The tours last approximately two hours covering locations east to Avenue D, west to Avenue A; north and south, Fourteenth and Houston Streets, respectively. Each Saturday the tour will begin at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth and Tenth Streets at 3 PM.

Check out the MoRUS website for more information ... and there are a few days left in their crowdsourcing campaign to restore their Sandy-damaged space.

Prepping for the weekend: Here's 'White Girl Wasted' (Woo!)

Here's the latest video from our friend Hila Perry, aka "HiLa tHe KiLLa" ... (and, depending where you are, perhaps NSFW).

AERIAL MOOSE HEAD ALERT!

A reader just snapped this photo at Bleecker and the Bowery... hope that they aren't going to try to mulch this...