Photo by Bobby Williams
Monday, October 14, 2013
For another look at the early days of CBGB
Marc Campbell, vocalist of the Nails, is none too pleased about the new CBGB biopic... and at Dangerous Minds today, he offers up an antidote.
For a grittier and more honest view of the early days at CBGB, check out Ivan Kral and Amos Poe’s 1976 cinéma vérité, low-budget (but beautifully shot) The Blank Generation. With its post-dubbed sound and chainsaw editing, the movie doesn’t work as a strait-on, conventional documentary but it does capture some important rock and roll history, a time when rock was starting to feel again.
You can head on over to Dangerous Minds to watch the film if you'd like...
[Image via Dangerous Minds]
Reader report: Someone dumped the turtles from the Ninth Street Community Garden into a hole
[At the garden last spring via Bobby Williams]
An EVG Facebook friend shared a WTF story from over at the Ninth Street Community Garden at Avenue C. Last week, someone gathered the garden's turtles ... and dumped them into a hole in the back of the garden. Thankfully, Garden volunteers recovered the turtles. None of the turtles were apparently hurt.
Per our Facebook friend: "So sad that someone would do that ... those turtles are a bit of a main attraction. Hopefully they'll be left alone."
Bharucha and Banksy
Here's more about the additions from the weekend to the Banksy installation on East Seventh Street and Cooper Square ... via the EVG inbox...
Free Cooper Union is pleased to present the repentance of Jamshed Bharucha.
“Cooper Confessional” depicts Cooper Union’s overpaid and visionless President, Jamshed Bharucha, as he confesses his transgression from a historically merit-based full scholarship model, to an expansionist tuition agenda. Hearing Bharucha’s lament is Peter Cooper, who founded the Cooper Union in 1859 and established the mission of the institution as necessarily providing free education to all admitted students while educating against the evils of debt.
This collaborative work is flanked by an image of the infamous Jamshed the Giant, who insists that must students PAY for years of financial mismanagement and administrative bloat at the Cooper Union, along with the title of the Free Cooper Union Player’s latest drama, Free Cooper: The Musical, which is the sequel to the group's debut hit The Politics of Destruction.
As Banksy notes, “there's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place,” and with that in mind, and with many more plans for direct action, we continue to fight against tuition at Cooper Union and the rising tide of student debt.
Oaxaca Taqueria opening a new location on East Seventh Street
Based on the new signage here along East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... it appears that the fifth NYC location of Oaxaca Taqueria is coming soon...
Oaxaca Taqueria expanded from Brooklyn into the East Village and Extra Place in December 2010... This space was previously home to the Butter Lane cupcakes classroom.
...and the taco revolution continues in the East Village... with the recent arrivals of Tacos Moreles on East Ninth Street... Sembrado’s Tacos al Pastor on East 13th Street ... Taqueria Diana on Second Avenue ... El Diablito Taqueria on East Third Street... and the incoming Otto's Tacos on Second Avenue...
[Updated] Activity at the dormant Pride & Joy BBQ
On Saturday, we saw workers hauling out trash and what not from the dormant Pride and Joy BBQ entrance on East Second Street... As we first reported last November, celebrity BBQ chef Myron Mixon was going to open a restaurant/saloon in the former Lucky Cheng's space. (Read that post here.)
However, a lawsuit between Mixon and his partners threw the opening in doubt.
So, does the sight of workers dumping trash from inside the restaurant mean that the BBQ concept is dead?
We asked Hayne Suthon, who owns (and lives) in the building on First Avenue and operates Lucky Cheng's, now on West 52nd Street, what was happening with the restaurant.
"[The remaining partners] are moving forward without Mixon to open soon," she said.
Perhaps they've paid the ConEd bill too.
Updated 1:30 p.m.
DNAinfo is reporting this afternoon that Pride and Joy BBQ just received a liquor license to open a "220-seat 'draft house' and 'honky-tonk' featuring three bars and about 20 TV screens.
During the SLA hearing last Tuesday, lawyer Ravi Ivan Sharma argued for, and received, a 4 a.m. closing time for the BBQ space. Last December, CB3 approved the license but with a midnight closing time during the week and 2 a.m. on weekends.
"That's not what the applicant bargained for when they took on a very expensive lease," Sharma said.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ now in the works for the former Lucky Cheng's space
Fire reported at incoming Pride and Joy BBQ on East Second Street
Myron Mixon lawsuit puts opening of Pride and Joy BBQ in question at former Lucky Cheng's space
More about the timing of the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone
[Click image to enlarge]
On Friday, CB3 member Chad Marlow learned that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. (Read the background about all this here.)
Here's an update. According to StreetsBlog, there were 74 applications for slow zones citywide. In total, the DOT selected 15 of the zones to be rolled out over the course of the next three years. Turns out the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone is in the highest priority group, and is set for implementation next year. Other neighborhoods receiving a slow zone next year are Norwood in the Bronx, Clinton Hill/Bedford Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights, Queens.
The DOT says the applications were evaluated on criteria including crash history, community support, and proximity of schools and senior or daycare centers, as StreetsBlog reported. Slow Zones will include signage, a 20-mph speed limit and speed humps.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)
Lighting store coming to East 7th Street
The D.L. Cerney boutique closed up after 28 years last November ... a sign in the window at 13 E. Seventh St. point to the new business coming soon... your neighborhood lighting store...
The sign shows that the store will sell light bulbs and customized lamp and light fixtures... and offer lamp repair services... Which reminds me that I actually don't own a lamp.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Someone apparently took a car door off the Banksy mobile on Ludlow Street
[Image via Banksyny]
This Banksy mobile showed up on Ludlow Street on Wednesday... part of the artist's month-long NYC street residency... as perhaps expected... someone took a piece of the installation (the back door on the driver's side) ... as this photo via Justin McWilliams of the East Village shows...
Banksy's piece on East Seventh Street was quickly altered ...and his some of his other work has been defaced as well this month...
Week in Grieview
[Photo by Derek Berg]
New dorm a go for Cooper Square (Tuesday)
City OKs East Village Slow Zone (Friday)
About that "nasty" kiddie pool on the roof (Tuesday)
Registered sex offender arrested for attempted kidnapping on Avenue B (Wednesday)
Mudspot Café coming to the First Park kiosk (Thursday)
New vegan brunch at The Bhakti Center (Thursday)
Workers cut down trees at Astor Place subway plaza (Wednesday)
Out and About with Sally Young (Wednesday)
The Living Room closes after Oct. 26 (Wednesday)
Duane Reade is expanding on Avenue B (Monday)
Part of St. Mark's Place is now Sara Curry Way (Monday)
The never-ending saga of the illegal rooftop additions at 515 E. Fifth St. (Wednesday)
There's a new coffee shop on East Fifth Street (Monday)
A look at "Mildred Fierce" (Thursday)
People liked this cat painting (Tuesday)
Retail space at 205 Avenue A hits the market (Wednesday)
Plans for new bar-club at 50 Avenue B on hold for the moment (Wednesday)
The future of East Houston and Ridge (Monday)
Not a lot of people like the CBGB movie (Tuesday)
A look at the incoming Root & Bone on East Third Street (Monday)
Extending the Second Avenue bike lane (Tuesday)
One dead Christmas tree (Wednesday)
Updated: Someone already defaced Banksy's East Village street installation
[peter radley]
Banksy unveiled his latest NYC street installation yesterday on East Seventh Street and Cooper Square... And as this photo by @svvalera shows, someone has already defaced his "Concrete Confessional."
This marks the third of his pieces to be defaced during his month-long residency in NYC.
Updated 12:24
More about this via Angus Johnston at Student Activism:
Sometime last night or this morning, the priest in the painting was given a bushy white spray-paint beard which rendered him a dead ringer for Peter Cooper, the founder of the Cooper Union. At the same time, the cross that adorned his neck was replaced with a giant Flavor Flav style clock with a red face and hands set just prior to midnight, the symbol of the Free Cooper Union activist movement.
And there's apparently another confessional showing someone who looks like Cooper Union President Jamshed Baruscha... with a Free Cooper Union tag...
[Photo by @KOKO820]
[Photo by @bobcooley]
We keep posting photos of the sky
[Click on image to enlarge]
This is actually from yesterday morning ... via Bobby Williams.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
[Updated] Tree fire in Tompkins Square Park
Shortly after 6 ... There's a tree fire mid-block on the East Seventh Street side of Tompkins Square Park. The FDNY is there and on it, per Dave on 7th and Jose Garcia.
Updated:
A photo and video via @NCintheNYC ...
...and video...
Updated 10-13
GammaBlog has more on the blaze... noting that the tree in question was the great old gnarled Black Locust ... check out more photos here.
And a photo of the gnarled tree yesterday via Bobby Williams...
Haven't heard about any official cause of the tree fire.
[Updated] The latest Banksy is on East 7th St.
If this is of interest... the latest Banksy street installation around the city is on East Seventh Street outside Cooper Union... just follow the crowd to see "Concrete Confessional."
[Photo by capnyc via Instagram]
Top image via Banksy.
Updated:
More photos via EVG regular jdx ...
...and peter radley...
Check out some more photos over at EVG friend Roger_Paw right here.
[H/t @erikakaz]
Free today in Tompkins Square Park: 'Hangin With Satan'
Spotted this at the Park entrance. Don't know anything about it. Per the "Satan" Facebook page:
Hangin with Satan explores an alternative way of looking at the world and ourselves. Told through Satan himself this story challenges the current paradigm that god is the one and only ruler who passes the last judgement on all of us. What if we were taught that we all were gods. That we posses the powers and knowledge within ourselves to fully control our own destinies without going out of ourselves looking for power and guidance. In every human being, there lies a blueprint for their life as well as a record of their past and the past of the world.
The play is set in the Park as well. Starts at 5 p.m.
Noted
Spotted on the Vitamin Shoppe's front door on First Avenue and East 14th Street... can't recall seeing many "unapproved for menacing" signs before...
Meanwhile, in Tompkins Square Park this morning...
A boy walks his goat. (It was all for some video shoot.)
Friday, October 11, 2013
Noted
A bikenapped Citi Bike on East 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B? Photo by EVG reader Philipp.
City approves Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone
[Click image to enlarge]
Back in April, CB3 member Chad Marlow, and the group that he founded in 2011, the Tompkins Square Park & Playground Parents’ Association (TSP3A), kicked off a neighborhood safety initiative.
The group applied to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to have them create what the group is calling the "Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone" (TSACSZ).
The TSACSZ, in short, is an effort to improve pedestrian safety for children and all others who live/work/play in the proposed 0.38 square-mile zone by reducing motor vehicle speeds. Per Marlow, the slow zone program takes a well-defined, relatively compact area, and reduces its speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour, with further reductions to 15 miles per hour near schools.
In an op-ed in The Villager last spring, Marlow also revealed a personal reason behind this proposal. In 1995, a drunken driver struck Marlow's father, an accident that left him with quadriplegia and a severe brain injury. His father died 13 years after the accident. (Read the entire op-ed here.)
We asked Marlow via email for his reaction to the DOT's decision:
"I am beyond grateful to the Department of Transportation for approving the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. I am equally filled with gratitude for all of the community groups, elected officials and members of Community Board 3, whose support for the proposal was instrumental in making it a reality. Most of all, I find myself thinking of my father, Richard Marlow, and how something positive has finally come out of the years of terrible pain and suffering he endured after being hit by a speeding, drunk driver in 1995. I dedicate this effort to his memory."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)
Why is Vella Market closed?
[Photo via @andrewketler]
Several readers have pointed put that Vella Market has been closed on Avenue B and East Fourth Street... There isn't a note on the gate about a temporary closure... and their phone just rings and rings... Anyone hear anything about Vella? We rather like/liked this place, which just opened in April.
The previous tenant, Kate's Joint, the 16-year-old vegetarian eatery, closed in April 2012.
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
[Photo along Avenue A by Michael Sean Edwards]
Airbnb attacks "vague" New York hotel laws (Ars Technica)
Rebecca Flint Marx bids farewell (for now) to Russ & Daughters (Medium)
At the new home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club (The New York Times)
A lawsuit to stop the NYCHA land leasing plan (Curbed)
The Open Call deadline for Emerging Artists on the LES is Sunday (The Lo-Down)
Check out the Hua Mei Bird Garden in Sara D. Roosevelt Park (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
One year in the life of the East Village/LES Historic District (Off the Grid)
The Bowery can still attract kitchen supply stores (BoweryBoogie)
The markets along Hester Street in 1905 (Ephemeral New York)
A good find: Music video with The Senders on the LES in the late 1980s (Flaming Pablum)
A favorite lonely place (Gog in NYC)
Sarge's looks to have longer to go before opening (Eater)
Looking at Peter Semple’s "Dandy," featuring Nick Cave and Nina Hagen, from 1988 (Dangerous Minds)
...and Au Revoir Simone pays homage to Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" ...
51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant! 51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant! 51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant!
[EVG file photo]
You may have heard the news from Crain's yesterday afternoon: 51 Astor Place has its very first tenant!
1stdibs, an online auctioneer that specializes in the sale of high end vintage goods ranging from furniture to fine art, has agreed to a deal to take the 12-story building's entire third floor, a 42,232-square-foot space, for 15-years.
Woo!
And there may be more celebrating in the near future. Developer Edward Minskoff said, "We're very close to another deal. And we're in negotiations with six other tenants."
The 400,000-square-foot development opened in May without any signed tenants.
Meanwhile! The reaction from Twitter?
.@evgrieve With their first rent bill, of course!
— 51 Astor Place (@51deathstar) October 11, 2013
Previously on EV Grieve:
3 retail spaces available at 51 Astor Place
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower
East Village — the new Midtown?
[Updated] Get dirty this weekend at La Plaza Cultural
From the EVG inbox...
La Plaza Cultural Community Garden & the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space Join Forces to Give Land a Fresh Start After Superstorm Sandy
Saturday, Oct. 12, Noon
Sunday, Oct. 13, Noon
What: “Day of the Dirt” Garden Restoration
Where: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden (Corner of 9th St and Avenue C
Why: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden will be receiving 50 yards of soil (1,350 square feet!) and compost to distribute around the garden to help recover from Sandy.
How: We will be moving the soil manually by wheelbarrow and spreading it with people power. If you want to volunteer, just show up! Gloves, rakes, other tools will be provided on site.
Who: We need volunteers of all ages to help by:
● hauling soil in shifts
● helping spread it with rakes and shovels
● planting grass seed in the freshly laid lawn area
● helping to transplant plants that we want to save
● removing items in the way of where we're laying the soil
● gathering stray bricks
We’re giving La Plaza a fresh start after Sandy, and we really need those who can make it to come out and help us restore this special place.
Updated 11:45 a.m.
The soil has arrived, as this photo via Shawn Chittle shows...
CB3 hearing on illegal rooftop additions at 515 E. 5th St. re-scheduled for another month
The Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) had previously ruled that landlord Ben Shaoul needs to remove the 6th and 7th floors. However, his attorneys are requesting that the city grant a zoning variance to "permit the constructed enlargement, minus the penthouse, to remain."
And how did this go? A tenant reported that "the landlord pulled out of the CB3 hearing at the last minute. They have re-scheduled it for next month."
In 2008, the BSA decreed that the additions were illegal and should be removed.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Never-ending battle wages on over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St.
People miss the trees at the Astor Place subway plaza
As we noted the other day, workers, for whatever reasons, removed the trees from the Astor Place subway plaza ahead of the Astor Place-Cooper Square revamp... most readers here and on Facebook were pretty much WTF about it... EVG regular Terry Howell shared this shot of the trees as they looked in January 2011... Anyway, plans show about eight trees will be planted here in the revamp...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Revamped Astor Place subway plaza apparently won't need its existing trees
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project
An updated look at the all-new Astor Place
Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place
Important questions of our time
When did Joey Pepperoni on First Avenue start serving breakfast? And tacos? And wings? (We hadn't noticed!)
Also, has anyone tried any of the non-$1 pizza items?
Anyway. Just the latest (or not) development in the grim First Avenue $1 pizza wars.
Previously on EV Grieve:
First Avenue $1 Pizza Wars — now with draft beer
Checking in on the $1 pizza war on First Avenue
Latest weapon in the First Avenue $1 slice wars: Dancing Pizza Menu Woman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)