An encouraging sign for the former Amato Opera?

I walk by the former Amato Opera on Bowery near Second Street fairly often. The Amato closed May 31 after a 61-year run. As Curbed noted, the building sold for $3.7 million.

Each time I walk by, I expect to see the Amato letters removed from the building...



...and all the costumes boxed up...




Still, I have some hope for this space. The Real Deal reported in late January that the building's new owner wants another theater to occupy the ground floor.

Plus! I find this encouraging: This commemorative plaque went up at the Amato this week.



Would anyone bother with a plaque if the building was going to turn into, say, a condo?

For further reading:
Amato Opera (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Speaking of the Bowery...

DBGB has a canopy!

Still speaking of the Bowery

Former child actress Lindsay Lohan went shopping at Blue & Cream at First Street and the Bowery on Tuesday.



I've never paid any attention to this store. Have you ever looked at the stuff they sell? Like the Bowery T-shirts for $90?





[Lohan photo: PacificCoastNews.com]

Jimmy McMillan campaigns in the East Village last night (yes, the rent is too damn high)

Spotted Jimmy McMillan in action last night. I saw him on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... telling people that "rent is too damn high" from the soundsystem that he has hooked up...

Breaking: Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood"

Cityfile has a report on Zagat's new nightlife survey. Some 6,000 New Yorkers were allegedly surveyed. And what did they say?:

The Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood," while the meatpacking district was named "most over-rated/or over-hyped." As for "the growing trend of bars with master mixologists," more than half of the people surveyed said it was "an excuse to charge more for drinks."

One way of dealing with roof-party snobs, courtesy of Sonic Youth

Thanks to This Ain't the Summer of Love for alerting us to the new Sonic Youth single/video.

The ramenators remove the wood

What it looked like Tuesday evening.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

The Mars Bar gets painted white (Little Stories and Maybe Poems from Now and Then)

The clothesline returns behind the Coop (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Thompson LES honcho: "Part of the process is to ingratiate the neighborhood and realize that the hotel, the pool, the restaurant, the bar are actually an asset and do make for a better, safer, cleaner neighborhood that creates more jobs and creates more energy and ultimately has a positive ripple effect for residents, for merchants, for everyone around it." (Grub Street)

At the Bowery Stakeholders' meeting (BoweryBoogie)

At the Peppermint Lounge in July 1982 (Ephemeral New York)

NYC has the fucking worst fucking road rage (Gothamist)

Some UK dive bars for you — and will they put on the Yankees game instead of this soccer? (Hunter-Gatherer)

A guide to Gramercy (Lost City)

Slum Goddess at the Chicago Blues Festival (Slum Goddess)

Q-and-A with director Susan Seidelman (FlavorWire)

Oldest bar in NYC? (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Finally, thanks to the reader who sent me this. However, I don't accept advertising on this site.

Looking at the "Lower East Side: An Endangered Place"

In the Examiner today, Bernie Mooney has a piece on a short documentary called "Lower East Side: An Endangered Place." It will be part of a program at the Asian American International Film Festival, which begins July 23. As Mooney writes, "In the past decade, the Lower East Side has become a Disneyland for drunks and a playground for out of control development. History is fast being lost."

The documentary by director MA Shumin looks at "the gentrification of the area and how that has affected the lives of people who live and work there." Here's the trailer



Thanks to commenter Geoff for telling us the film will show at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 24, as part of the "Home Is Where The Heart Is" shorts program.

Easy as One Two Three

I've been kicking around the idea of seeing the "The Taking of Pelham" remake. So-so reviews. I know people who really liked it, though. Perhaps it's one to sneak a few beers into. Help pass the time.

Anyway, over at Runnin' Scared, Roy Edroso compared what "New York on film means now, and what it meant when the 1974 Joseph Sargent version ... was new." He seems to sum up exactly why I'm not hurrying to throw $12.50 at the theater.

A few of his points:

"In the 1974 film, the low-ceilinged control center, the glimpses of grim city streets, and Mr. Green's crummy walk-up at the finale suggest enough of the battered old New York to make an impression. There aren't too many physical details that stand out in the new 123..."

And!

"The old film has a comic undertone that the new one can't afford. 2009's jacked-up pace is part of it, but it's also a philosophical difference. In the new film everyone's playing for high stakes all the time, clenched like fists. In the old film, most characters show some weary resignation, which is something city folk have to learn if they're to keep going."

Not to mention John Travolta's hammy theatrics.

And here's a little filmstripesque sequence from the first film... when the transport of the ransom money gets sidetracked at Astor Place.










Related!:
5 New York 70s Movies We Are Terrified to See Remade

Previously on EV Grieve:
New York City subway films of the 1970s

The ransacking of Pelham One Two Three

Yogurt and cherries on St. Mark's Place

In case you haven't already made this connection...

Perhaps they spent all the money on the renovation and flat-screen TVs

The new sign is up at Aces & Eights on Avenue A.





Looks a little...? Small? Homemade? High school shop classy?