Off the wall

I'm always rather surprised to see the side of the building free of ads here along this stretch of Third Avenue near 12th Street...Been empty for at least a week since "The Pink Panther Part Duh" banner came down...




This is always prime ad space too. A short history of the wall from 2008...







Previously on EV Grieve:
Where are all the ads?

The Tompkins Square Park Christmas tree lights come down on President's Day

The Christmas tree in Tompkins Square Park was last illuminated on Friday, Feb. 6. However, the strands of lights remained on the tree...Until yesterday, when a City crew came in and removed them.

Stomp and go

For a moment the other night, I thought perhaps Stomp had ended it's 178-year run at the Orpheum on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place...



Nope -- just a little work being done on the marquee.

Noted

From the Post:

As season two of Bravo's guilty pleasure launches [tonight], housewife Jill Zarin warns, "You're gonna see some [expensive] toys come out, unfortunately. We filmed the show before the recession happened."

The recession that has put millions of New Yorkers out of work threatens to make New York's real housewives appear even more self-indulgent and childishly pampered than last season. Back then, they were merely cougars of conspicuous consumption, spending perversely amusing bundles on themselves. This season, when housewife Alex McCord and husband (some say honorary housewife) Simon van Kampen drop $8,000 on clothing at a Hamptons boutique, their extravagance will likely strike viewers as prodigal in the extreme.

Van Kampen, manager of Murray Hill's Hotel Chandler, hopes the economy doesn't turn off viewers to the cast's wasteful spending habits. "This is escapist television for a lot of people," he says. "I don't think there'll be much negative reaction. Honestly, I think there is less conspicuous consumption in season two."

"A Personality in the East Village"

I'm interested in seeing Edgar Oliver's one-man show, “East 10th Street: Self Portrait With Empty House.” It's playing at the Axis Theater, 1 Sheridan Square, in the West Village. Here are some passages from Ben Brantley's review in the Times today:

Mr. Oliver is a poet, playwright, performance artist and actor. But above all, he is a Personality, with a capital P, a type celebrated in England as an Eccentric and in middle America as a Character. It’s not easy being a Personality in the East Village, where the willfully weird abound (or did once, anyway) and where Mr. Oliver has lived since the late 1970s. It requires an exaggerated consistency of character and style, which should seep from every pore.

In “East 10th Street,” which runs through Feb. 28 in a judiciously austere production directed by Randy Sharp, Mr. Oliver uses this sensibility to evoke his years as a tenant in an S.R.O. boarding house on Tompkins Square Park, into which he moved, fresh from Paris, in 1977, when he was 21, paying $16 a week for rent.

“East 10th Street,” which was staged in November, has developed a cult following. It’s easy to see why. Mr. Oliver depicts and embodies a bohemian, low-rent New York that scarcely exists anymore. It’s hard to imagine anyone like him, with a similar set of stories, coming out of the gentrified East Village of the early 21st century.

Let mw know if you've seen it...

Ryan's Irish Pub (temporarily) closed

Was surprised to find the always reliable Ryan's Irish Pub on Second Avenue near Ninth Street closed the other day...




However, a source told me this is just temporary, and that they're doing a little "remodeling." Still, you'd think the Ryan's folks, who also own Bull McCabe's and the Thirsty Scholar, would put a sign on the door telling what's going on now...

Nothing more festive than an opening of a new Subway

Grand opening this past weekend...



On Second Avenue near Ninth Street...at the site of the former Burritoville.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Locals will no longer have to walk a few blocks out of their way for a Subway

Fluffy taken to Pennsylvania

These fliers are all over Avenue B...click on the image for a better read...



Sad, strange story.

Earlier:



Previously on EV Grieve:
PURE SPECULATION: Maybe people are stealing pets for the reward money?

Report: Cops will be cracking down on petty crime

From today's Post:

After giving petty criminals a break, the NYPD summoned a dozen precinct commanders to Headquarters Friday to help focus efforts against aggressive beggars, squeegee men, hookers and illegal peddlers, The Post has learned.

Station-house bosses from Manhattan and The Bronx met with top brass and gave them reports on quality-of-life problems each is facing, according to sources familiar with the gathering.

The summit was called by Chief of Department Joseph Esposito after cops issued 7.1 percent fewer summonses for minor offenses in 2008 than in 2007, as The Post reported last month.

Early in the week, a unit from headquarters scouted the city looking for problem areas and taking photos. Then brass called the sitdown with precinct heads to hear from them.

They talked about petty crimes and misdemeanors that can drive the average New Yorker nuts -- street walkers, panhandlers who get in your face and homeless people who hang out at ATMs or fast-food joints.

"Room service!"

The Times has a piece on how hoteliers often turn to movies for design ideas.

For his largest Manhattan property — the Bowery Hotel, in the East Village — Mr. MacPherson turned to an even more surprising source: Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980), a horror film that takes place in the Overlook, a fictional hotel in the Rocky Mountains. At the Bowery, “There’s a bit of the feeling of the Overlook — hopefully without the creepiness,” he said. “The idea is to create something that is old and grand and hopefully slightly bigger and more storied than its guests and owners.”

Mr. MacPherson relied on another Kubrick film, “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), when he chose elements for the Bowery’s bellman uniforms, which evoke the film’s violent hooligans.

Though the literal associations with the film might elude visitors, they will probably know that they are someplace visually distinctive, Mr. MacPherson said. “It’s very much as if you’re building a set and everyone becomes a character in the film you’re making there,” he said.

More on the Hotel Carter

(Photo by Jeffrey Docherty)

A few weeks back I did that post on the Hotel Carter being named the dirtiest hotel in America by TripAdvisor. This past Wednesday, Curbed had the goods on blogger Mike Barish, who spent a few hours there to see how bad it really is. He filed this must-read report:

So, is the Hotel Carter the dirtiest hotel in the United States? Not from what I could see. It's unkempt. It needs major renovations including new paint, carpeting, and lighting in both the rooms and the hallways. The bathroom tiles need to be completely replaced along with the vents. But overall, it's just not that disgusting.

However, it is the single most depressing hotel I have ever been in. In fact, it may be the bleakest place I have ever been. Period. The whole environment is joyless. The wan lighting wears on you after a while. It just makes you sad. The uninterrupted white walls offer no stimuli to keep your mind focused on anything other than the sadness of the room. If there was a sequel to The Shining about a hotel that made you despondent instead of insane, it would be filmed at the Hotel Carter.

Which brings me to today. A press release came through the transom from UrbanMaidGreen, an eco-friendly cleaning service on Union Square. They're offering "a cleaning to any couple spending their Valentine's Day in the infamous Hotel Carter." And. "We will send our staff to clean your room for free on Valentine's Day, to help get you out of the doghouse from your significant other."

Well, OK. Unlikely, but. Anyway, as Barish wrote, no guests are allowed at the Carter. Which means, presumably, no outside cleaning crews. Or hookers.

Graffiti watch

Earlier this week, CityRag had an appreciation of some NYC graffiti...with links to their older posts on graffiti around the city, such as in the East Village and on the Bowery...and LES.