Working sort of zipping along at the old Zips space

And as of Friday evening, a new paint job for what is expected to be an upscale diner-type place at Avenue B and Fifth Street...



And is black and blue the best color scheme for a new restaurant in this economy?

Previous Zips coverage here.

Fourth Street, 7:57 p.m., May 8

From "The Real Housewives of New York City" collection perhaps?

Because nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" like an AbRocket, BenderBall or some running gear.



Anyway, I got my mom the five push-up bras for $20 yesterday at the street fair.

In case you missed yesterday's street fair on Second Avenue, the exact same vendors are on Broadway today

From 14th Street on down....



With the winds today, the vendors were having problems setting up their stuff...






Previously on EV Grieve:
Pass the Tums: First of 458 spring/summer street fairs kicks off today on Second Avenue

The Times explores the culinary tastes of Seventh Street

A look at the different cuisines of Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. “Even though you cannot deny that the East Village is a little more upscale,” said Suzanne Wasserman, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History, who specializes in the history of local food vendors, “these are businesses that are not chains. They’re small businesses, and small businesses are what make neighborhoods unique.” (The New York Times)

[Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times]

Sign of the Times

The guy in line said he will not pay $5 for the Sunday Times starting in June...nor will he pay $2 for the daily paper. He said he will simply just read the paper on his iPhone.

Pass the Tums: First of 458 spring/summer street fairs kicks off today on Second Avenue

Runs from 14th Street all the way down to, oh, Georgia.









There's at least one new addition to the usual array of sausages, bags of socks, four T-shirts for $10 kookiness...a local merchant... Chocolate Bald Men have a stand/booth

REALLY big crane doing something on Third Avenue

So Second Avenue is off limits to traffic with the street fair... Meanwhile, on Third Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets...this humungo crane is lifting something up to the roof at 111 Third Ave. And slowing down traffic. And making everyone look cautiously toward the sky.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

An item about "Ugly Betty," an EV gallery owner and trash (Page Six)

Private fashion event to take over West Fourth Street ball courts (Washington Square Park)

Highlights from Miss Heather's trip through the EV and Chinatown (New York Shitty)

Hot dog in the early 1990s (Little Stories and Maybe Poems from Now and Then)

More on the possible move of Ludlow Guitars (BoweryBoogie)

Trash?: Thoughts on the new New York Dolls record (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

Getting to know Crazy Joe Gallo (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A slam the landlord party (Blah Blog Blah)

Q-and-A with author and EV Grieve reader/frequent commenter Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk (Amanda Young)

Words to the wise on the street (Flaming Pablum)

Going underground: A tour of the world's oldest subway tunnel (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Going underground?!

MUSICAL INTERLUDE



At Joe's (The Village Voice)

Fake cabs (NYC Taxi Photo)

Update on Ray of Ray's Candy Store (Scoopy's Notebook, The Villager, third item)

Also from Scoopy: Florent Morellet's new restaurant plans (fourth item)

Speaking of Florent's! Perfect time to run this photo that Karate Boogaloo passed along by photographer Gary Breckheimer:



Another NYC nude here (NSFW)

Manhattan now more reasonably overpriced

From the Times:

“When you go to Manhattan, there’s an air of selling out,” he says. “I’ve accepted that.”

Great Recession prices are drawing even the most loyal outer-borough dwellers back to Manhattan. The migrants hail from Hoboken, Astoria and the brownstone blocks off Prospect Park, as New Yorkers who found themselves priced out of the gilded isle in the boom years are bidding farewell to long commutes and skinny-jean chic.

Among the lures: $1,600 one-bedrooms on the Lower East Side. Lenient landlords who no longer require security deposits. And an overriding sense that an obscenely overpriced borough is now, well, slightly more reasonably overpriced.

This is a rainy day (sung to the tune of "Perfect Day")

Kinetic Carnival posted this on Thursday...Lovely.



From "Little Fugitive."

A little something for all you lovers in the house

Reminder: "Praise Day Reading for Richard Leck" tomorrow afternoon

Karen Lillis hosts a memorial reading for the late poet Richard Leck, at the Bowery Poetry Club tomorrow from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. It's called "Praise Day Reading for Richard Leck." Free admission. Several writers will read from Leck's poems and excerpts from his memoir, "Jumped, Fell, or Was Pushed." Ken Wohlrob has a list of the speakers.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Remembering Richard Leck: "He liked the anything-goes quality, the creativity and the street life"

"Start spreading the wealth".... and Bloomy gives thumbs up to an awkward performance on the congas

Thanks to Slum Goddess for reporting on Rev. Billy's new singing endorsement.

And here it is... You may recognize a few folks (aside from Rev. Billy, of course...)



Meanwhile, to be fair and balanced, here is Mayor Bloomberg playing the congas. What a natural!

Anyway, as NBC noted: "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch all 70 seconds of this awkward, spine-curling video of Mayor Bloomberg playing the congas at an event in Spanish Harlem Tuesday."