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."

Village Green ready for sales action

Village Green, the new condo going up at 311 E. 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, advertised in the Post's real-estate section yesterday. It aims to be the first LEED Gold certified building in the East Village. Prices at the former parking garage range from $730,000 to $1.9 million.

Meanwhile, here's some of the marketing copy on the 311 Web site that's now live:

Upon entering 311 E. 11: Village Green, you are greeted with a welcoming smile from the 24-hour doorman. From the ice white quartz floors to the embroidered accent walls, the lobby is the perfect fusion of modern elegance and 21st century technology.

The accompanying lounge by interior designer Andi Pepper is a serene go-to spot to meet new friends and greet old ones.

Here's one of the renderings of 311... there's a gym on the street level for the pervs to gawk...



And a word of caution once this place is open.... Watch out for the cars driving by at 125 mph! Hey, Vin Diesel!



For further reading:
New East Village Building Outed as Hippyish "Village Green" (Curbed)

P.S.
I just feel like hearing this now...

Pearl Street almost starting to look like a street again

Almost! After being torn up for about, oh, 18 months or so, Pearl Street at Maiden Lane is shaping up.... the sidewalk has been poured...the Rockrose development has windows... now the street just needs to be repaved...any bets on how long that takes?

Previously on EV Grieve.

The fellow who was terrorized by old people during the Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival ended Sunday...





Anyway, I was sitting at the Grassroots the other day. And this young fellow started talking to his drinking partner about how much he hated the Tribeca Film Festival. Specifically because he lived on Third Avenue near the Loews Village VII where some of the films were showing. He complained about sidewalk congestion. People screaming for cabs at night. Idiots paying no mind to their surroundings while texting/talking. Couples arguing about whether his/her spouse remembered to bring the tickets. That kind of thing.

Mmm-huh.

The perceptive drinking partner asked how this was different from any other Thursday/weekend night.

"These people were old."

Possibly unrelated! As Daily Intel reported, "500 New York Police Department barricades were used throughout the Festival."

Did anyone else hear any TFF horror stories?

Gold's Gym Crunched

There was a Gold's Gym on John Street in the Financial District....then one day a few months back, it disappeared behind some plywood, and gymgoers had to enter through a different doorway...and then overnight this week it became a Crunch.

A note from EV Grieve about spring cleaning. And stuff.

Hello. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I did some spring cleaning. Specifically in the drafts section in the EV Grieve archives, where I was horrified to find 228 half-written posts taking up space. Some of them are just dated. Some of them just weren't quite working. So I posted a few of them anyway. Which explains all the nonsense going on below this post. Now what to do with the other 217 or so drafts...