Nope, still not used to it

51 Astor Place aka the IBM Watson Building.

Films that we want to see: 'Stations of the Elevated'

"Stations of the Elevated" opens tomorrow for a week-long run out at BAM. We'd like to see it.

Some thoughts in the press:

Manfred Kirchheimer's Stations of the Elevated (1981) is a 45-minute proto-hip-hop bliss-out, a masterpiece of train- and tag-spotting dedicated to memorializing the extravagant graffiti on its era's MTA trains and how those trains rumbled across Brooklyn and the Bronx, bearing not just exhausted New Yorkers but gifted artists' urgent personal expression.

(Alan Scherstuhl, the Voice)

Graffiti no longer represents the menace it did in the seventies and eighties. It’s arguable whether most New Yorkers even find it offensive anymore. It is part of the romantic, rough-and-tumble past, preserved in museums and coffee-table books. You are just as likely to see graffiti on the streets of Brooklyn as on the Web site announcing a new Brooklyn condo, an evocative signifier of urban bona fides. Graffiti quietly anticipated the look and feel of contemporary advertising, from guerrilla marketing to the notion that every surface was a potential billboard.

(Hua Hsu, The New Yorker)

An appreciation: Raquel's garden on 1st Avenue

[EVG file photo from July]

The First Avenue bike lanes arrived back in in July 2010 ... the new concrete pedestrian island and tree pit at First Avenue and East Seventh Street provided one longtime East Village resident with an urban garden that has been well-admired these past four years.

When sunflowers arrived in September 2010, Raquel Shapira noticed that no one was watering the plants.

So she bought a watering can across the street at Saifee Hardware. The Tile Bar, which is the closest business to the island, lets Shapira keep the can there and use their water.

Guerilla gardening hasn't always been easy here. (Case in point one and two.)

As the gardening season winds down, we asked Shapira a few questions about her work.

Why did you decide to start tending to the plot on a more regular basis?

After seeing the sunflowers not being tended to, I could not ignore them or watch them die. As other plants started to appear ... the mission was kept alive. The following years I started planting my own flowers.

What has been the most rewarding part of this? The most frustrating?

The most rewarding is having a piece of greenery in the middle of NYC cement no matter how small it may be. The sunflowers bring smiles to people faces and many stop to take pictures. It's a joy.

Of course, the most frustrating thing is or are the flower thieves. This past spring I saw a woman cutting tulips in broad day light. Luckily I was around to shoo her away. Sunflowers are usually stolen during the night, which makes me suspect that weekend drunks are most likely to be blamed.

I heard that you received a new watering can.

For my birthday this year, my friends at the Tile Bar gave me a larger watering can, and each of them signed it as a card. Was a beautiful gift that reduced my exercise routine.

What's in store for 2015 here?

Next year I'm hoping to get wildflower seeds and sow them early spring. I may venture to other islands along First Avenue and sow them there as well — although I will not be able to water those. Of course plants that exist in the plot will always be taken care of.

Any parting thoughts?

What I like about this garden is keeping it organic. I have seen small plots on streets between Broadway and Fifth Avenue where every few months new plants are being forced around the trees to make the rich tenants happy. This garden is not the same. I let every plant live to its fullest and I'd like to keep it this way even if it doesn't look like a Fifth Avenue plot.

And yes – it's pretty much the end of the season, except the cosmos decided to bloom quite late. Even the vine growing on the tree is showing signs of life with new flowers. So I'm keeping an eye as always.

Here's Shapira (center) with her friend Manny Verdi (far left) on First Avenue and East Seventh Street. As for the other two fellows, they were moving a couch and stopped for a rest. Photo last Friday by Lori Kohn.



For further reading:
the little garden that could
Loisaida Nest

Thanks to The Village Voice

The Best of New York 2014 issue named EVG as the Best Local Website.



Yikes. There go my plans to "temporarily close for renovations" next week.

Seriously, though — thank you. Everyone.

And congratulations to my blogging friend Jeremiah Moss, whose Jeremiah's Vanishing New York was deservedly named Best Chronicle of New York's Ever-Changing Face.

S & P Liquor & Wine back in business on East 5th Street

Back in late July, the city ordered three small businesses on East Fifth Street just east of Second Avenue to vacate their storefronts due to a "structural" issue in one of the apartments in the building above…

Goggla tells us that the liquor store has returned … they haven't fully restocked the shelves just yet (the landlord made them move their stock from the basement to a warehouse). However, they are still able to make deliveries.

Unfortunately, Jamie the check-chasing guy is still operating from the van outside his storefront. (Today's Cut hair salon remains closed too.)



Last month, Jamie offered us this explanation about the situation:

What happened was there was some construction being done [in the building] and a person put their foot through the ceiling. The person below them had enough and finally called the fire department and police department. Because of the condition of the place, the fire department looked, didn’t like what they saw, didn’t see any permits, and they went around the whole building. By the end of the day, it was everybody out — full vacate.

Updated 8:28 p.m.

Read the comments... looks as if they will have to close again for some repairs...

Previously on EV Grieve:
3 small businesses temporarily closed due to structural issues at 300 E. 5th St.

Parmys Persian Fusion becoming Ravagh Persian Grill

Parmys, which opened in November at 125 First Ave. between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, closed Monday for a mini makeover.

Per the Parmys website:

We apologize that we will not be open to serve you, but we are also thrilled to reopen this Monday, October 20 as
Ravagh Persian Grill! It is such an honor to be joining our Ravagh family to grill up traditional Persian dishes for all to enjoy!

Here's background on Parmys via the Times in April:

The chef, Mojgan Raoufi, had never cooked in a restaurant before, having spent much of her professional life in a hospital lab. She runs Parmys with her younger brother, Amir Raoufi, who previously managed the Edgewater, N.J., branch of Ravagh Persian Grill, a mini-chain owned by their older sister’s family.

There are currently Ravagh Persian Grills on East 30th Street and on the Upper East Side.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Parmys Persian Fusion coming soon to First Avenue

Hitchcocktober movie of the night — 'Psycho'

All this month, Village East Cinema on Second Avenue and East 12th Street will be screening an Alfred Hitchcock classic on Thursday evenings.

And tonight — "Psycho" starring Vince Vaughn.



Here's the schedule for the rest of Hitchcocktober:

• Oct. 23 — "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

• Oct. 30 — "Strangers on a Train"

The films start at 8 p.m. Head to the Village East Cinema website for more info and tickets.

Pie Face leaves a note

The Pie Face on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street quietly closed this past weekend. (Apparently several other locations closed as well.)

EVG Twitter friend @fnytv spotted a sign on the cafe's front door...



Pie Face opened last fall. I thought they sold pizza. Some commenters were equally confused:

Anonymous said...
Don't want to buy something with a name called pie face. It was lost in translation?

Pikachu de Gallo said...
Meat pies and coffee? Their business model was to give people the shits?

Report: TATS CRU member arrested at Ace Bar after smacking patron with beer mug

[TATS CRU mural on the side of 20 Avenue A]

Let's head to the Post:

Famed graffiti artist Davide Perre, known for his murals on city walls worldwide, was arrested this morning after allegedly hitting a man in the face with a beer mug in an East Village bar, police sources said.

Perre, 39, of Brooklyn was charged with felony assault after the victim was sent to Bellevue Hospital with blood gushing from his head.

Perre and his twin brother, Raoul — members of the famed TATS CRU from the Bronx — were at the Ace Bar on East Fifth Street when an argument erupted with two men. One of the men made comments about David’s wife and his brother’s girlfriend, and was then smacked.

Reader report: Korilla BBQ soft opening on 3rd Avenue

An EVG reader said that people have been coming out of the new Korilla BBQ restaurant at 23 Third Ave. near St. Mark's Place with food late this afternoon… the reader said Korilla is going through a test run for the official grand opening…

Previously on EV Grieve:
23 Third Ave. getting its stripes

Korilla BBQ confirmed for Archie & Sons space

Remember the Alamo

While walking around Astor Place this morning... we were thinking that the crawler excavator was awfully close to the Alamo, aka the Astor Place cube... where work continues on the reconstruction of Astor Place...



Maybe someone else noticed...because workers later put up protective plywood around the Alamo for now...

Boarding up the cube at Astor place #nyc https://t.co/9l9UjyiY6E

— Chris Alexander (@alexandermania) October 15, 2014

And some day... the area will look like this...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

What scientists found in NYC rats

[East 12th Street the other day]

Via The Verge:

[S]cientists captured 133 rats from traps set in five locations around New York City, euthanized them, then took genetic samples of the bacteria and viral specimens found in their tissues and excretions (saliva, feces, etc). The scientists found lots of viruses, not surprisingly.

But while many of the bacteria detected were expected — including e. coli and salmonella — the scientists also found at 18 completely new viruses. None of these new viruses have been found in humans, at least not yet, but two of them are structurally similar to Hepatitis C, which does occur in people and raises the risk of liver scarring and cancer.

While there's no immediate cause for alarm, the scientists note that that the spread of these new viruses from rats to humans could theoretically already be occurring and is possible in the future...

On Sunday, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released an audit showing widespread deficiencies in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's response to citizen complaints about rats.