The last American Virgins to close

You probably saw the news last Friday that the two Virgin Megastores in New York (Union Square, Times Square) will close in the coming months. (It was previously reported that just the Times Square location would shut.) Then late yesterday, Billboard reported that all of the remaining Virgin stores in the United States were being shuttered.

This has certainly been discussed somewhere...but! Are there any chain record stores left in NYC? I've lost track. The F.Y.E. on Sixth Avenue near Radio City is long gone, right? And I don't count those combo chains like Best Buy or Barnes & Noble that may sell music...or locals like J&R.

Anyway, I'm no fan of Virgin or any national chains...And Alex expressed exactly how I feel about all this in a post from this past January:

I don't honestly believe the Virgin Megastore is all that great. Sure, it's convenient, but it's ultimately just an arguably soulless chain store that caters to the lo.com.denom-addicted masses. That said, it's yet another place to buy music that is vanishing, and I find that rather sad.

So maybe this is a little good news for the remaining indie record shops around town? Otherwise, like everything else, it's a bad time for music...including Mondo Kim's, Etherea (a new record shop at this spot is in the works with a different vibe)...Strider Records maybe... Vinyl specialist Malachi Records quietly closed after just six months. They were in a rather obscure second-floor location at Fulton and Nassau in the Financial District....What else am I missing? Oh, and not to forget what's happening to Music Row.

Related:
In case you haven't seen Ben Sisario's "The death and life of great Manhattan record stores" piece from last April.

Speaking of record stores...

The former Bondy's on Park Row still sits vacant...it closed in early 2007, as I recall. (Love that they had "Walkmans" on their sign...)

What do Kermit the Frog and Lou Reed now have in common?

Meanwhile, Supreme unveiled its latest model last week....Here's Lou on some plywood on East Seventh Street near First Avenue.....




[Kermit photos via Allen AKA]

Related:
Supreme's Lou Reed Campaign Gets a Touch-Up (Gothamist)

Happy birthday, Lou Reed (Flaming Pablum)

Top that, Kermit

Plywood at St. Brigid's taken over by new (healthy!) fast-food restaurant posters

On the Avenue B side....


And on the Eighth Street side....

Today's time sucker: PadMapper

I was reading about PadMapper on LifeHacker...and started playing around with it for no good reason. (Oh, what's PadMapper? As Adam explained at LifeHacker: It "maps Craigslist's apartment listings on a Google Map for an at-a-glance look at available offerings.")

Anyway, I came across a "recession" discount sublet -- $125 for a room on Avenue A and 10th Street. Huh? Is that for a day? A week? I went to look at the actual listing on Craigslist...and it had been removed.

Two signs of the Christmas holiday even though it was actually March 2

J&R on Park Row...



At 10th Street and Avenue A...

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Former LES resident Richard Boes, a regular in the early films of Jim Jarmusch, died on Feb. 21. In recent years he had self-published several acclaimed books. (DWX)

Let's not repeat the mistakes of Nassau Street (New York Post)

...but they do have that new free store (New York Post)

Manitoba's turns 10 -- and launches new Web site (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

The hand signals of the Stork Club (A Continuous Lean via Grub Street)

Rev. Billy's bid for mayor (Gothamist)

Remembering Music Row (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A rundown on LES car services (BoweryBoogie)

Someone had the balls to eat a granola bar in the Pee Pee Phone (Slum Goddess)

New Yorkers cutting back on cable (Bits)

Exclusive: It snowed

Bar with no name opens in former Mo Pitkin's space

We were surprised to find the former Mo Pitkin's space reopened as a bar this past weekend. We knew something was in the works for the place. In any event, there was a "soft opening" -- as they say -- this past Friday in which a reliable EV Grieve operative reported that the place looked "sketchy" in sort of an Upper East Side way. There's no indication outside what the place is called. In any event, it's apparently run by the folks behind Aces & Eights, the fratty Yorkville saloon on First Avenue and 87th Street.

The former Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction bar/restaurant/performance space at 34 Avenue A closed in October 2007. It was owned in part by Two Boots honcho Phil Hartman. According to the Observer last November, the building was sold for $4 million.

We stopped by ourselves last night...but the place was closed...no word yet on what will become of the performance space upstairs. There is a rather rumpled-looking banner advertising loft space for rent hanging from the second level, though it looks like it's for LiveinNYC.net. (They have no listings for spaces on Avenue A.) It would be a shame if this becomes just another bar...losing the performance part of the space in the process.

A look inside Sunday night...

A REAL bad sign: The Jagerettes at the Holiday

1) I understand the fact that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place needs to make money to stay open...so why not attract the dreaded Saturday night crowd.

2) Stefan never would have gone for this.

PS
Well, it could have been worse, like the Jager dudes...

PSS
I've never actually seen the Jagerettes...here's a shot (so to speak) from another event that I found on the Internets...

Signs from the recession: At Angelina Cafe

Avenue A near Third Street.

The shroud of WaMu: The Bowery loses a bank

The Washington Mutual closed up shop on Bowery and Bond ... WaMuers need to head over to the next closest WaMu location at St. Mark's and Second Avenue. Seems like the perfect spot for something such as another bank branch!