Lunch date

Today in Tompkins Square Park. By Bobby Williams.

Going deep at the Schwimmer's for that 6-story new home

Work continues at 331 E. Sixth St. ... where we continue to speculate that the land under the formerly historic, now-demolished townhouse is the property of David Schwimmer. (A refresher on why this may belong to the "Friends" star here.)

Goggla passed along this photo. And we took a look at the site ourselves yesterday. The workers are digging deep... any deeper and they'll be in Hollywood soon...

There are permits galore now on file with the DOB... we're looking at "the erection of a 6 story one family building."

According to permits, Cooper Union grad (and current Trustee!) Leslie Gill is the architect of record. (No sign of the renderings yet, but we look forward to seeing them!) Among the many projects during her distinguished career, she did the master planning for Warner Bros. Records, Los Angeles. (Did you know that "Friends" was filmed on the Warner Bros. lot from 1994 to 2004?)

Meanwhile.

A caller told the DOB on Nov. 30 that workers are "doing unsafe demolition and it is causing his building to shake and it may cause structural damage."

And now, a comment someone left on Nov. 25 on one of the other Schwimmer posts:

You know what the difference between LA and NYC is (having lived in both places I can speak with some some degree of knowledge)?

In LA they don't give a rat's ass about the character of the neighborhood. There's very little consideration given to architectural context, and they have very few buildings that have been around since the 1850s.

Here we take some pride in the fact that our neighborhoods have some character, and saying that someone can do 'anything they want' with an old building may be technically true, but is completely out of the spirit of what makes this city different and why neighborhoods like the LES/EV what they are.

If someone comes in and buys a perfectly nice old building (and one that might actually be landmark-worthy) and then razes it to put up some monolith that has no relationship to the what's around it, well, then that person is, um, well, an idiot.

Having some knowledge of the world that Mr. Schwimmer comes from, it's not strange that he did what he's doing, because in his world oversize garish houses on small lots is what you DO. You could really care less about what your neighbors do or think or even what their house looks like.

Here, however, that's really annoying and I'd even go so far as to say dramatically uncool. Welcome to NY, David. It's clear you're just an interloper with more cash than sense.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

[Updated] Hospital Productions closes on East Third Street

Hospital Productions, the specialty record store that peddled black metal and noise music, has evidently closed up its shop at 60 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. Someone has cleaned out the store and there's that "for rent" sign in the middle of the front window...

I first noticed the sign when it was above the store last month.

Via email, I asked the Hospital folks on Nov. 15 if they were closing/moving. They told me they were "just working on a huge inventory project."

When I saw that the store was empty, I sent another email asking if they were moving or only selling items from their label online ... I received the following: "I am currently out of the office until 2012. Thank you for your patience."

UPDATED: East Village Radio provides more background and color on just how unique this store was...

Hospital was a store like no other in this city, selling a wide-range of fringe music and sound-art from a variety of genres. Established by Dominick Fernow as an extension of his tape label bearing the same name in 2006, Hospital’s early life as a retail outlet was spent in the basement of Jammyland—a record store specializing in dub and reggae. In those days, you’d walk down the aisle of Jammyland while the clerk eyed you suspiciously until you hit an almost totally vertical ladder to descend into Fernow’s foxhole filled with noise, black metal and experimental cassettes, LPs and CDs. Jammyland eventually left, and Hospital ascended from the basement and took over the ground level storefront at 60 East 3rd Street.

Silent night, dark knight: Where are the Tompkins Square Park holiday lights?

On Sunday, we attended the annual tree lighting in the Park ...

Flashback!

[Bobby Williams]

And as this dark, grainy photo shows... the lights are off... they were off Sunday night and last night...

Perhaps it is as simple as someone isn't plugging in the lights? Other theories (or facts!) are welcome...

The night that the music died on East 14th Street

EV Grieve reader joe spotted this old beaut outside the Crocodile Lounge on East 14th Street last evening...

He couldn't find a date of manufacture, but the 10-year warranty must have expired.

This week; Theatre 80's documentary series and short films from Occupy Wall Street

From the EV Grieve inbox...



Theatre 80 and WingFlix present a documentary series of films from around the world and shorts from Occupy Wall Street. Tickets are $10 and may be ordered online here. Come in and have a drink at Theatre80’s William Barnacle Tavern and talk to the filmmakers. Charles Krezell curates this series.

Tuesday, December 13 @8.00pm

“The Orange Chronicles” 2006, documentary 98 minutes Ukraine

The 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine was a massive demonstration of people for democracy and against electoral fraud. Millions braved freezing weather conditions to fight against stolen elections.

THE ORANGE CHRONICLES is a powerfully moving and unique examination of Ukraine's Orange Revolution from the perspective of an intrepid Ukrainian-American filmmaker, recording the build-up to what turned out to be one of the most astonishing bloodless political turnarounds in recent history. Filmmaker, Damian Kolodiy will attend.

Wednesday, December 14 @7:30pm

“Granito, how to nail a dictator” 2011, documentary 103 minutes, Guatemala, Spain, U.S.

GRANITO is a story of destinies joined by Guatemala’s past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation’s turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present.

Thursday, December 15 @7:30pm

“Bigger than the Beatles, Obama and the Peeps” documentary 81 minutes, Washington, D.C.

Bigger than the Beatles takes you to Washington, D.C. for the week of January 20, 2009, and Inauguration of Barack Obama. It captures the energy and spirit of that historic event as seen through the eyes of Everyday People.

Because you want to know that the 7-Eleven on the Bowery has added more signage

However subtle...

Could be worse, right?

Previously.

In other East Village signage news...

Signs have recently appeared on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street at the incoming L’asso EV ...

From the people behind Mott Street pizzeria L’asso.

And on Avenue C at Ninth Street, the sign is up for The Wayland, the bar taking over the Banjo Jim's space....

3 scenes from Tompkins Square Park today

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Today in discarded books on Second Avenue

EV Grieve reader AC wonders if someone dropped this along here Saturday afternoon... Or it was a subtle hint that went unheeded...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

More details about Friday night's shooting at Campos Plaza (The Lo-Down)

Q-and-A with some of the holiday tree vendors in the East Village (NY Post)

Hotel Chelsea trying to boot residents (DNAinfo)

Good news for some Coney Island boardwalk businesses (Amusing the Zillion)

Another victim in the ongoing High Line luxurification slaughter (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

You can't copyright yoga poses (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

MJ Armstrong's closes on First Avenue and 19th Street (NY Post)

The holiday windows at old-timer Zitomers (Nonetheless)

Dinner at Gallagher's Steak House (Marty After Dark)

The Bean is open — and busy

Just after 9 a.m. at Second Avenue and Third Street, where The Bean opened today... photos via jdx...