Spotted on the plywood at the under-renovation Cabrini Center on Avenue B and East Fifth Street...
Monday, August 20, 2012
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...
Numbers go to 8 ... and it looks as if the crew is starting on the 10th floor... on the the way to 12...
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Black Iron Burger back open after brief remodeling hiatus
Week in Grieview
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.
Anyway, so there's this on the wall now.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Lunatic fringe
Eh. Seems like a good weekend song. Fun Boy Three circa 1981 with "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)."
You can now expect Citi Bikes in March, maybe
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...
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.
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.
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
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...
Summer Fridays rehash: Desperately Seeking 1985 New York City
Hey, we're digging into the EVG archives for these next few summer Fridays... first posted on July 22, 2008, before I learned when a post was getting too fucking long... (and keep in mind that there is not a free screening of the movie tonight — this was four years ago...)
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There's a free screening tonight of 1985's Desperately Seeking Susanat McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint. It's a silly movie (stolen ancient Egyptian earrings! amnesia! mistaken identities!) that I enjoy watching every summer. (In fact, I just watched it Sunday night.) As Brian J. Dillard writes in his review at allmovie.com, "A classic Hollywood screwball comedy transposed to modern-day Manhattan, Desperately Seeking Susan offered mid-'80s moviegoers a mall-friendly version of hip New York style, much like Madonna did throughout her early musical career."
I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers — Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)
Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.
Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.
On Second Avenue.
Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!
Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!
Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.)
------------
There's a free screening tonight of 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan
I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers — Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)
Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.
Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.
On St. Mark's.
On Second Avenue.
In front of Love Saves the Day.
Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!
Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!
Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.) 
Now, some Desperately Seeking Susan trivia from Wikipedia, which means it may or may not be right:
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead.
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead.
* Bruce Willis was up for the role of Dez. Melanie Griffith was up for the part of Susan as well.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.
Summer Fridays rehash: An EV Grieve editorial (aka, this week's sign of the Apocalypse)
Hey, we're STILL digging into the EVG archives for these next few summer Fridays... We first posted this hard-hitting editorial on July 31, 2008 ...
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According to the Times today, shorts are no longer "an office don't. These days, they are downright respectable" at the office.
EV Grieve responds:
"Shorts are no longer an office don't" — OH YES THEY ARE.
"These days, they are downright respectable" at the office — NO! NEVER! NEVER EVER.
That is all. Thank you.
Oh, if you must, an excerpt from the article:
The willingness of men to expand the amount of skin they are inclined to display can be gauged by the short-sleeved shirts Senator Barack Obama has lately favored; the muscle T-shirts Anderson Cooper wears on CNN assignment; and the Armani billboard in which David Beckham, the soccer star, appears nearly nude.
Not a few designers are pushing men to expose more of the bodies that they have spent so much time perfecting at the gym. “We have all these self-imposed restrictions” about our dress, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for the designer Michael Bastian. “As men’s wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it’s not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.”
While Mr. Bastian is a designer of what essentially amounts to updates on preppy classics, even he has pushed for greater latitude in exposing men’s bodies to view.
[Photo: Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times]
--------------
According to the Times today, shorts are no longer "an office don't. These days, they are downright respectable" at the office.
EV Grieve responds:
"Shorts are no longer an office don't" — OH YES THEY ARE.
"These days, they are downright respectable" at the office — NO! NEVER! NEVER EVER.
That is all. Thank you.
Oh, if you must, an excerpt from the article:
The willingness of men to expand the amount of skin they are inclined to display can be gauged by the short-sleeved shirts Senator Barack Obama has lately favored; the muscle T-shirts Anderson Cooper wears on CNN assignment; and the Armani billboard in which David Beckham, the soccer star, appears nearly nude.
Not a few designers are pushing men to expose more of the bodies that they have spent so much time perfecting at the gym. “We have all these self-imposed restrictions” about our dress, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for the designer Michael Bastian. “As men’s wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it’s not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.”
While Mr. Bastian is a designer of what essentially amounts to updates on preppy classics, even he has pushed for greater latitude in exposing men’s bodies to view.
[Photo: Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times]
Thursday, August 16, 2012
51 Astor Place, now with a branded sidewalk bridge
Letting the world know what's coming to the crossroads of the East Village... and in the corner: "Occupancy Spring 2013." Or, 53,672 more blog posts on the topic...
Previously on EV Grieve:
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower
East Village — the new Midtown?
If you want a quick look inside Johnny Ramone's estate
Linda Ramone lives in an eccentric museum. The widow of iconic Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone (who died in 2004 of prostate cancer) is dedicated to preserving her late husband's legacy, and his estate. She still lives in the home they shared in the Valley — a wacky, charmingly garish house filled with things like original posters for Elvis Presley movies and stuffed foxes resting beneath punk memorabilia. And, of course, there's the shrine to Ronald Reagan in the kitchen.
She hosts the 8th annual Johnny Ramone Tribute on Sunday.
[Photo by Kai Flanders via L.A. Weekly]
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition
Maharlika on First Avenue is opening a "Filipino gastropub" in the East Village (Zagat)
An alternate Coney Island (Dreams of the Vanishing New York)
Memorial for victim of in garbage-truck accident on Allen last weekend (BoweryBoogie)
Is Gin Palace "the dive bar of cocktail bars"? (The Wall Street Journal)
Apparently Houston, Boston and Orange County are all cooler and hipper than New York City (Forbes, h/t Jeremiah Moss)
Seward Park OKs 7-Eleven (The Lo-Down)
Looking at a "Kids with laundry" photo from 1972 — possibly East 13th Street? (Ephemeral New York)
The dusty, moldy wasteland inside the Chelsea Hotel (Living With Legends)
A "conspicuous consumption has made a resounding return to Madison Avenue" (Racked)
... and some random teeter-tottering last night on East Sixth Street near Avenue A...
...and EVG reader Rik Rocket shared some more 185-193 Avenue B destruction photos ...
The Surprise Garden and how it got that way on East 14th Street
EVG reader Arrow Zelasnic contributed the following story and photos ...
This sidewalk slab size garden gives a whole new meaning to the words "vacant lot". Here is how it came to be.
The City cut down a tree in a tree well on the 14th St. side of Campos Plaza between Ave C & B. Not surprisingly, it got filled with various organic and inorganic trash.
Surprisingly, Tom, a resident of Campos Plaza, began planting and tending it for no reason. Tom passed away some time ago. Surprisingly again, Laurie, a resident of the brownstone row at the end of the block, adopted it. In the center are two sunflowers which are about to bloom, surrounded by an English Garden in a tree well. She calls it the Surprise Garden and so it is.
The garden is tended by a loose coalition of neighbors. On another day I met Lisa, a Campos resident, bikeriding with her dog. They were working on installing a fence.
The horticultural philosophy of Laurie and the Surprise Gardeners is leave no millemeter unplanted. This creates the colorful lushness that delights passers-by. It also discourages dog walkers and slobs.
Not surprizing in New York the idea is not fool-proof and it requires lots of upkeep to look so good. And water. Here is a photo of Laurie with the water bottles that she carried down the block.
Have a story about the East Village to share? We'd like to hear it. Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email
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