"Barnacle" Bill dies

The Villager has the feature obituary on William “Barnacle Bill” Scott. He died May 2. He was 44. Lorcan Otway writes the feature:

Born on July 8, 1965, “Barnacle” was well known in the East Village as a gentleman and a gentle man, in spite of his hardscrabble looks. Bill wore a nose ring, and had a large, upturned scar on the left side of his mouth, giving him the look of a pirate, but that was the farthest from the reality of this man.

He went from the Navy, where he was a petty officer, a bosun commanding small craft, to the Navy Reserve, and then honorably discharged became a merchant mariner, spending a good part of most years sailing American-flag vessels.

When not at sea, Bill spent a good deal of time in Tompkins Square Park, where he was as at home with the “crusties” as he was with the Village intelligentsia. His stories, whether of life at sea or East Village adventures, were punctuated with his trademark Homeric line, “It was not for nothing that...,” and on the story would wind.

[Villager photo by Lorcan Otway]

Reminder and a look back: The Ukrainian Festival...and St. George Schools

The Saint George Annual Ukrainian Festival
starts tomorrow... EV Grieve reader/commenter Mick passed along the link to some photos from St. George Schools on Seventh Street... no exact date is given on these two...just some time in the 1950s...

Traveling the East Village streets of late summer 2007 (and who wants to go see "Mr. Bean's Holiday"?)

I was looking for something in the East Village on Google Maps. Never realized Google's EV street views are a little dated... How dated? Well, I took a trip over to the Loews Village VII to see what was playing...

Given the films on the marquee ("Rush Hour 3!" "Mr Bean's Holiday!") this has to be late August or early September 2007. You know, it's not really all that long ago...but if you start to take a tour of the neighborhood, you see how much has changed... Momofuku didn't rule First Avenue... the former CBGB space is still for rent...there were more record stores than froyo joints on St. Mark's Place...several glassy towers were holes in the ground or just on the way up... Here are a few highlights via screenshots of the street views...:

The Toll Brothers tower at 110 Third Ave. ...



Five Roses Pizza on First Avenue...

The Kurowycky butcher shop is still in business; the International has yet to reopen on First Avenue...



Fontana shoe repair is still open on 10th Street...



Alt Coffee open next to Doc's on Avenue A...



The spacecraft had yet to land...



Cemusa bus shelter going up on Avenue A...



Buy a CBGB T-shirt...



No bank on 10th Street and Third Avenue...



The A Building rises...



Before the darkness on 13th Street...



The Sylvia del Villard Program of the Roberto Clemente Center at 13th Street and Avenue B. Now home to this.



Eddie's Tower of Toys stood...



No John Varvatos in the CBGB space...



Love still Saves the Day at Second Avenue and Seventh Street...

Take a spin on Google Maps for yourself....you may even see someone on the street that you recognize.

Troubling trends?: Yes, and give me an extra pitted, brandied cherry in my Rosewater Rickey — and watch the Angostura bitters

From The Wall Street Journal today:

As the economy sputters, bartenders are going back to school -- in bartending.

Several organizations, including the world's second-largest liquor maker, have begun offering graduate-style courses to certify drink makers as "masters" of the craft. These programs, which mimic those that anoint wine buffs as sommeliers, aim to help students find gainful careers in the bar or spirits industries as well as further legitimize the profession.

Designers of the new courses hope to fill the nation's bars with a greater number of sophisticated drink makers, which in turn might attract greater numbers of sophisticated drinkers.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Report: Tommy Hilfiger to open a "concept store" on Union Square South?

According to this week's issue of The Villager (not yet online), Tommy Hilfiger is the latest retailer to sniff around the carcass of Union Square South. There has been some talk of Tommy Boy taking over the Circuit City space or, perhaps, the soon-to-be-departed Virgin Megastore. As the paper notes, Tom has considered opening a "concept store" in one of these spots. Meanwhile! A few other items from the article...Filene's Basement may shutter its Union Square South location...and the Au Bon Painful on Fifth Avenue at 15th Street closed. Now where will I go for a decent sandwich in this city? (And if anyone thinks I'm serious about that last line...)

Speaking of Union Square South

Here's a Life magazine photo of 14th Street looking east circa 1951. Hey, where's Forever 21?



P.S.

For no reason, a DC-4 passenger plane flying over Midtown. (No date listed.) Perhaps a photo opp for the Douglas Aircraft Company?

Somewhere around Penn Station

Something to match my sweater.

More reasons why we all should LOVE the recession! (Alternative headline: Enough already with listicles telling us how we should enjoy a recession)

From the Post:

Enough already with the food recession blues. Believe it or not, there are actually some good things the econopocalypse hath wrought — the demise of water sommeliers, gold-flecked sundaes and reservation scalpers chief among them.

So let's get back to basics and toast an end to bloat. Check out our Top 10 reasons for loving the recession.

Among the reasons? An end to Velvet ropes!

While the Meatpacking District is still fueled by models and bottles, there are signs that the trend is waning. We were happy to see the uber swank of Level V recently replaced by 675 Bar. The honest-to-goodness joint is billing itself as a local's hangout ("because the Meatpacking District is a neighborhood, too") offering "a casual, no bottle, no guest list vibe."

And here's the photo the Post uses to illustrate their point on 675 Bar:

Toilet training

Found on the sidewalk on Avenue C between Eighth Street and Ninth Street...Dunno which building has the tenants who are flushing things other than waste and toilet paper down the toilet. I cropped out the footprint. Which may have been a mistake. A clue!

Seventh Street tumor watch: We have doors and windows

Or maybe two doors?



Anyway, the work continues on Seventh Street near First Avenue... on what a construction worker at the scene says is "a restaurant or another bar."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tumor exposed on Seventh Street

Noted

An actor walks on Seventh Street near First Avenue Sunday afternoon. And no one really notices. Except the paparazzi.


[Image via Bauer Griffin.]

"It has started again" — the gates of squeaky hell

This cardboard sign was up on the gate to the Village View parking lot on Second Street near First Avenue. "It has started again. The constant noise drives everyone crazy." I happened to be walking by one day when the gate was closing... And as this exclusive six-second video picks up...