Veselka Bowery now has... tables!

Last week, we pointed out that Veselka Bowery had chairs... and now! Tables...

Tomorrow? Linens! (If you're lucky...)

Photo by Bobby Williams

Depending on your news source, Gavin DeGraw was either injured or brutally beaten on First Avenue

The world is waking up to or, perhaps, going to bed to, the news that a group of men attacked pop singer Gavin DeGraw early Monday morning.

According to a lot of news articles, DeGraw had been out drinking with friends when he was beaten up on First Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets around 4 a.m. Monday. Then! According to reports, he walked (or stumbled or staggered, according to your news source) up to Third Avenue and 19th Street where he was hit by a cab about 30 minutes later.

He is in Bellevue with a broken nose and other lacerations. Police said that it was not clear what led to the attack or how many individuals were involved in the assault. He and his brother own the National Underground on East Houston Street.

Prime time

A reader sent along the above photo tonight with a note: "The old dinosaur was booted out off of 9th and C only to be replaced by this young, skinny and NAKED mannequin! Oh so telling..."

True!

Worse, I'm suddenly reminded of The Alan Parsons Project.

The sun is still shining

Looking southwest from 10th Street... Photo by Bobby Williams.

Wall Street, 4:30 p.m., Aug. 8

Yesterday in Tompkins Square Park

Thanks to Steven Hirsch for sharing these photos from yesterday in Tompkins Square Park, Day 2 of the Riot Reunion shows...

Find more of Hirsch's work here.

Report: Kenneth Moreno sentenced to 1 year in jail

Kenneth Moreno, one of the two ex-cops acquitted of raping an East Village woman, was sentenced to a year in jail this morning for official misconduct. (Daily News)

Checking in on the TSP Ratstravaganza

Been a few weeks since that rat-fueled media frenzy in Tompkins Square Park ... As we've noted, the Park is well-managed by some devoted workers.

Among other things, workers installed lids on the trash cans to prevent the rats (and other various critters) to get inside... A good idea in theory... However, people don't seem to have the grasp of the concept, as these photos from Saturday morning show...

Several of the trash cans were actually empty. Just people couldn't be bothered to push the trash through the lids.

Also, people (or at least The Pigeon Lady) continue to dump like 50 pounds of stale bread exactly in the location where the rats have been seen swarming near the playground off Avenue off Ninth Street... Saturday morning...

...and Saturday night, this photo by Sean Kennedy shows 18 rats on the prowl... (rats are highlighted for your viewing ease)

Previously.

Meanwhile, we have a much bigger problem in another East Village Community Garden

GIANT CHIPMUNKS!

In Gilbert's Garden on East Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. Whatever you do — don't talk to it! That squeaky voice!

City discovers bicycle graveyard on East First Street

Several readers have pointed out the pile of dead bikes on East First Street, along the construction-choked corridor between Avenue A and First Avenue ...

Now the city has posted these rather unintentionally funny signs on the bikes.

Wonder how city workers deduced that these are, in fact, abandoned? Anyway, if one of these bikes belongs to you... the city will remove it after today.

Also, does anyone know how all these bikes got here?

A bad sign at Billy's Antiques?

Billy Leroy passes along word that a gust of wind during the weekend took down the skull above his sign on East Houston...

The ghosts from the Bowery? Or the beginning of the end here?

Photos by Tim Dark.

Revisiting the BMW Guggenheim VIP opening-night party

Last Wednesday morning, I posted a photo that Bob Arihood took outside the VIP opening-night party at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The photo showed a drunken man slumped on the sidewalk.

There are some stories making the rounds now telling how partygoers were concerned, and eventually helped get the man medical attention. The story made it into a blog post by Linda Tischler at Fast Company. Here's a passage:

But for the fact that the poor guy barely seemed to be breathing, it might have been a clever bit of street theater to illustrate the Lab’s provocative theme: comfort — and discomfort — in the city. There was the line, with party-goers queuing up to get green wristbands qualifying them to choose between the Soave and bubbly rose, while next to them, a local resident lay sprawled on the pavement.

The tableau could also have been a question in the project’s signature game, Urbanology, which asks players to confront uncomfortable questions. In this case, “Should you leave a party, where you’re talking to somebody who could be important to your career, to help an inebriated man collapsed in the street?”

To their credit, a number of attendees were clearly agitated by the scene, passing bottled water through the fence, and frantically dialing 911 until FDNY’s rescue team finally showed up...

I asked Bob about it. He saw things a little differently. Bob figures the guy was on the ground an hour before anyone from the party tried to do anything to help. (For his part, Bob tried to speak with the fellow, and help get him off the sidewalk — with little success.)

Bob shared photos from the night that he didn't use to help illustrate what happened...

Eventually, two women from the party tried to give the man water.

Just before 8 p.m., a Guggenheim representative, who saw Bob taking photos, came outside to speak with the man. The rep called 911.

At 8:05, the FDNY responded to the scene, and they took the man away...

Back to Fast Company, where Tischler describes the FDNY's arrival.

"Those guys were clearly perplexed, not by the man on the ground, but why a bunch of up-towners were partying on a site that until last month was nothing but rats and rubble. As a final act, the FDNY righted the man, and he staggered off to an ambulance. Party on, dudes!"

So, what have we proved here? Nothing, really. Just felt the need to address the growing urban legend at the Urban Think Tank.