FYI

East village is already a disaster #santacon

— Katya (@katya323) December 15, 2012

what's with all the 20 somethings running around the east village dressed like jerry sandusky?

— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) December 15, 2012

8 things to do tonight in the East Village that don't involve Santas

[Big Ben]

I've heard from a few people today who said that they aren't going out today because of the Santas... That's kind of dumb, huh?

These are 7 things worth doing just off the top of my head, so to speak... Feel free to leave other ideas int he comments...

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• Go to the Ben Gazzara retrospective at the Anthology Film Archives. Tonight, "Husbands" at 6:30 and "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" at 9:15. (Info.)

• Visit the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Avenue C (Info.)

• Attend the annual holiday fair at d.b.a., 41 First Ave. 3-8 p.m.

• Take part in the annual Unsilent Night, the boombox caroling walk from composer Phil Kline's. Meeting place is 7 at the Arch at Washington Square Park... and traveling to Tompkins Square Park. (Info.)

• See Desire! [A Varsouviana], a "heart-stopping, pill-popping remix of Tennessee Williams’ sexiest play" at Under St. Mark's. 7 p.m. (Info.)

• Attend a world premiere dance performance of "Devouring Devouring" at the Ellen Stewart Theatre on East 4th Street. 7:30 p.m. (Info.)

• Check out the Sensitive Skin #9 Reading Release Party at A Gathering of the Tribes. 7-9 p.m. (Info.)

• Enjoy the quiet comfort of the William Barnacle Tavern at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place.

'Open clubhouse' at Ruff Club this weekend

From the EV Grieve inbox ... from East Village resident Danny Frost, who's opening the Ruff Club at 34 Avenue A... dubbed "a social club for dogs."

We're having "Open Clubhouse" events today and tomorrow from 11am-4pm. Folks can stop in for a coffee and tour our space, meet our staff, and apply in-person for membership.

We'll likely do a couple more of these ...After tomorrow, for the next couple of weeks we'll be open only for events and temperament screening appointments.

After the holidays, our daycare (off-leash play areas) and social club (the dog-friendly space with coffee and wifi in the front — picture the front bar room at Mo Pitkins / Aces & Eights with the bar intact but with a lending library instead of alcohol) — will be open 7am to 9pm weekdays, and we are still working out the exact weekend schedule. Boarding will be available 24/7/365.

Here's their website.

IT HAS BEGUN

Receiving all sorts of emails, tweets, etc. this morning with photos of the Santa-suit-clad partygoers beginning to form packs in the East Village ...

[Via Goggla]

[Via William Klayer]

The latest count on Facebook has 30,223 SantaCon attendees ... and that's separate from the Santa pub crawl that meets at the Village Pourhouse this afternoon... already hearing horror stories about the Santas. And this was before 10 a.m. Remember, once exposed to another Santa, the Santa virus begins mutating its host...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's where the Santas will be on Saturday (47 comments)

Noted

The wooiest stretch limo ever spotted in the East Village? You can't really make this stuff up. Avenue A and East 11th Street last night.

Photos by Shawn Chittle.

Holiday Hawk

Photos from Tompkins Square Park today via Bobby Williams.

This is England

"London Calling," the third studio album by The Clash, was released in the United Kingdom on Dec. 14., 1979. The video is for "Clampdown." And in case you don't know that the album cover was shot on East 14th Street... here's a little history about the greatest rock-n-roll image of all time(?).

A late afternoon holiday moment in Tompkins Square Park

Photo by @BennyPack

Has anyone taken advantage of this 'great news' at the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office?

We all know how much fun it is going to the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office on East 14th Street. (A reminder here and here.) Has anyone done the Sunday pick-up service this month?

Revisit the Lower East Side/East Village of 1978: Screening of 'Viva Loisaida' this Sunday afternoon

You have a chance Sunday afternoon to catch a screening of "Viva Loisaida," Marlis Momber's 1978 documentary about life on the Lower East Side.

Per the Facebook invite:

VIVA LOISAIDA, chronicles what life was like for the director and her fellow immigrants in the mid 1970s. The film opens with a scene in the old Tompkins Square band shell and goes on to highlight the huge murals, the many grassroots art and political organizations which contributed to the EV/LES's a cultural diversity.

The screening starts at 3 p.m., at the Tu Casa Rehearsal Estudio, 95 Avenue B (East Sixth Street). There's a suggested donation of $10.

Previously.

Reviving those 7-Eleven + another chain rumors for Avenue A

[Photo last week via Shawn Chittle]

That pesky rumor has returned... the one about the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street being more than just a 7-Eleven. Back in September, we heard the space of the former Bar on A and Angels & Kings would be chopped into two chains, a 7-Eleven and either a Starbucks or Subway. Just rumors mind you.

So far, there's nothing on the DOB permits pointing specifically to anything other than a 7-Eleven here. But! The applicant of record for both 500 E. 11th St. and 170 Avenue A is Bentonville, Ark.-based Harrison French & Associates, an architecture and engineering firm whose clients include 7-Eleven, Starbucks and Subway.

Plus, as several people have noted, this is a really big space for just a 7-Eleven. Anyway, yesterday, a reader passed along word of a rumor that the space will be both a 7-Eleven and a Starbucks.

Perhaps. Anyway, at this point, nothing would likely surprise us here...

Previously on EV Grieve:
7-Eleven alert: Are 2 chain stores replacing Bar on A and Angels & Kings?

First sign of the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A

Unsilent Night for a bad Santa kind of day in the East Village

[Unsilent Night in 2010 by Bobby Williams]

In case that you are looking for a group activity Saturday night in the East Village that doesn't involve dressing like Santa, acting like a jackass, buying Jäger bombs (and demanding that the bartender sets up a Jäger-train), terrorizing people out running errands, yelling for your friends who left a few minutes earlier and are already at next bar, then you're in luck...

It's time for the annual Unsilent Night, the boombox caroling walk... Composer Phil Kline's holiday tradition got its start in 1992... meeting place is 7 at the Arch at Washington Square Park... and the group makes its way over to Tompkins Square Park.

Oh, and what if the Santas come across the carolers...? Unsilent Night has asked nicely...

@santacon And please don't fuck with Unsilent Night! Enjoy it as it passes by ….

— Unsilent Night (@UnsilentTweet) December 13, 2012