New York City's original Death Star

We had a post yesterday about 51 Astor Place, including quotes from developer Edward J. Minskoff from The Wall Street Journal. (Flashback: "it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing.")

So, you know, at least one neighborhood blogger and several readers who just obviously don't appreciate great-looking architecture have dubbed 51 Astor Place the "Death Star."

Meanwhile! Turns out that this isn't the city's first Death Star... Crazy Eddie came across this Shorpy photo from 1902...

Per the caption, "The Waldorf-Astoria, New York." The original, and somewhat forbidding, Waldorf at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Complete with the obligatory windowsill milk bottle.

Of course, this Death Star had a short life... In 1929, the original Waldorf-Astoria was demolished to make way for something called the Empire State Building. (Did plans for that ever move forward?)

Not sure I'd describe that old Waldorf as a "Death Star." Maybe we can swap this out for 51 Astor? Dibs on the corner room at the top.

No dice on East Second Street

New Urban Etiquette Sign spotted outside an apartment building on East Second Street between Avenue C and Avenue D...

Includes awesome clip art.

Actually, those look like playing cards. But the point is taken.

Today in Urban Etiquette dog poop signs

On the topic of Urban Etiquette Signs, a reader sent us the shot below from East 12th Street near Avenue B where "there is always dog shit smeared on the sidewalk."

Here's one way to perhaps curb this kind of non-practice ...

This sign led to a conversation about the worst blocks for uncurbed dogs. Aside from this stretch, one candidate suggested was the north side of East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... on the sidewalk, dubbed by someone as "poop alley," along the Village View parking lot.

That aside, remember — You don't fuck with East 12th Street.

New Year's resolutions: Eat more fries at Ray's

One resolution that we won't break. Photo of Ray by @gerryvisco via the Ray's Candy Store Facebook page.

Rumors: 2 Bros. Pizza is opening another East Village location

BaoBQ closed here on First Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street in August. The for rent signs are down... and someone put up black trashbags on the windows...

We've from several different tipsters now that a 2 Bros. Pizza will take over this space... there hasn't been any official confirmation on this from 2 Bros., who continue to expand in the city... If this is true, then this could be one more reason why Vinny Vincenz Pizza close by on First Avenue is now selling a $1 slice, as noted yesterday.

Of course, there's already a lot of cheap pizza right around here, from Papa John's and Joey Pepperoni across the street to the other Joey Pepperoni's and 7-Eleven around the way on East 14th Street...

The first 2 Bros. opened on St. Mark's Place in 2008.

And now, a photo of Morrissey not looking so happy on First Avenue

Several people spotted Morrissey in the East Village yesterday... on First Avenue with two friends looking for a cab. EVG reader Krist Sorge sent me the above photo ... via Instagram.

BoweryBoogie posted a photo here.

As BB notes, the former the lyricist and vocalist of The Smiths was last spotted around these parts coming to the aid of a woman who passed out at the Strand in September.

5 nights of Nick Zedd and the Cinema of Transgression

From the EVG inbox...

NICK ZEDD & THE CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION
January 15-19
9pm-late all nights

Glasshouse 246 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211(G to Broadway, M to Lorimer, or L/G to Metropolitan-Lorimer)

Entrance is free (suggested donation of $10 at the bar)

Leading figure in the avant-garde cinema and NYC underground scene of the 1980’s and 1990’s; Iconic filmmaker, writer, and painter, Nick Zedd returns to New York City for a festival dedicated to his work, providing New Yorkers with the rare opportunity to meet and experience this body of work.

In addition to coining the term “Cinema of Transgression” and critically framing the work of his contemporaries (as creator of Underground Film Bulletin from 1984–90 and writer of the Cinema of Transgression manifesto), Zedd is known for his low-budget films, paintings, and mid-2000’s public television series with Reverend Jen, Electric Elf.

For this event Zedd curated a special program with screenings of most of his works since the 80’s and hosting works of some of his peers in the Cinema of Transgression movement including films by Nicholas Abrahams, Tessa Hughes-Freeland & Holly Adams, Angelique Bosio, Richard Kern, Richard Klemann, Casandra Stark and documentary films by Mary Jordan and Andreas Troeger.

Here's a Nick Zedd Tumblr with more details of what's playing each night.

Zedd lived in the East Village for years... these days he's down in Mexico City with Monica Cassanova and their son Zerak. Here's an excerpt from Whitehot Magazine circa December 2011 on his decision to move:

I could have stayed in New York, but after awhile it became a self-imposed purgatory, going to court, fighting frivolous evictions and continually winning against a psychotic landlord, accepting the ugliness of gentrification and becoming more isolated as the city became a party to which I wasn’t invited. New people to collaborate with kept me there for decades; but they got fewer and farther between. Every scene disintegrated into petty backstabbing or was short-circuited by landlord harassment. A new crop of faux bohemians arrived as part of a sad, fucked-up Simulation. There were so many normal people around I became agoraphobic. They took over my building, paying exhorbitant rents, complaining about the sound of my feet.

Living in NY, your mind gets clouded by the struggle to survive with pointless tension; then you convince yourself you’ve accomplished something special by having one hour of peace a week that anywhere else would be a daily occurence. We put up with it for so long because we know that everywhere else in the country is even more boring. A false sense of self- righteousness infects New Yorkers after years of accepting miserable conditions, bad service and aesthetic ugliness in order to be part of a myth. The City is a good place for roaches and bedbugs but for humans it’s living death. What kind of a city would let the Mars Bar close?!

Gnome alone

Tompkins Square Park today. Leftover entertainment from the MulchFest this past weekend?

Photo by Bobby Williams

Rejected headlines:
Take me gnome tonight
Gnome for the holidays

On such a gloomy winter's spring day

Took this at East 10th Street and Avenue D yesterday ... Posted it on Facebook... thought I'd put it here too...

[Updated] St. Brigid's reopens on Jan. 27

[Photo from Jan. 6.]

An EVG reader passes along word that the first mass at the restored church on Avenue B and East Eighth Street will take place on Jan. 27 ... Nearly 11 years have passed since the last mass in the main church (there were services in the school basement next door until 2004).

The church was thisclose to being demolished ... thanks to a group of hearty volunteers and parishioners who never lost hope... they were able to save the church from an after-life as a dorm or condo.

In May 2008, news broke that an anonymous donor gave $20 million to help refurbish the church... Per The New York Times: "The gift includes $10 million to restore the building, at 119 Avenue B; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish “so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community”; and $8 million to support the St. Brigid’s School and other Catholic schools in need."

All this seems like a hundred years ago...


Much more on St. Brigid's in the coming days/weeks... there's a lot to discuss...

Previously.

Updated 1-14 9:30 a.m.
We had also asked Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, for more information. He confirmed the Jan. 27 date. The dedication mass is at 5 p.m. However, an important note: The mass, presided by Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, is invitation-only for registered parishioners of St. Brigid's-St. Emeric's Church.

[Updated] 3 photos of 51 Astor Place from Jan. 12

Updated 1-14
Well! Turns out that The Wall Street Journal has a feature today on 51 Astor Place. (Thanks to the reader for the link). The article's headline: "Mixed Messages In New Geometry At Cooper Square."

To some excerpts!

Says developer Edward J. Minskoff: "This was a classic case of an opportunity to take a wonderful site and really put a special building there. It's dramatic, it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing."

And!

"When I moved here, there were buildings that were not known by their addresses. Lever House, the GM building, the Pan-Am building. I think 51 Astor Place has the opportunity to go down in history as to be referred to by the name of its tenants," Mr. Minskoff says, though he has declined to name any potential tenants with whom he is in discussions. "I don't like to build mediocre boxes. I want to build buildings that will be great on year 1 and great on year 30."

The structure going up at 51 Astor should not be viewed as mediocre, but it's a far cry from the type of ground-breaking design that earns a place in the pantheon of the city's name-brand buildings.

Previously.

Duane Reade's First Avenue Grand Opening is Friday

The time (heh) is coming for the Brand New Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street... the Duane Reade around the corner is relocating... per the sign on the soon-to-be-moving Duane Reade...

Meanwhile, we looked in the store to see if anything was on sale.

Not yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking: Former bank branch to become a Duane Reade on First Avenue