Seeing Christo in a new light

Christo the red-tailed hawk looking light as a feather in Tompkins Square Park early this evening... He's just atop a lamp post and not radioactive...



Photos by Steven

Honoring actor Joseph Sirola at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place

Photos by Stacie Joy

Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place paid tribute to actor Joseph Sirola yesterday with a ceremony that included clips from his hundreds of TV, film and stage credits.

As the New York Observer described him a few years back:

He’s been a Broadway song-and-dance man, soap-opera regular, business executive, drinking buddy to Richard Burton (a job in itself!), voiceover artist, TV sidekick, movie villain, Shakespearean actor, and a few other things.

More recently he became a Tony-winning producer for "A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder."

While he may not be a household name, people do recognize his voice thanks to shooting more than 10,000 TV commercials. (The Wall Street Journal once referred to him as "the king of voiceovers.")

Sirola, 88, a longtime Upper East Side resident, added his name and handprints to the celebrity “walk of fame” outside 80 St. Mark’s Place last night. His cement imprimatur will join others such as Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy.








[Sirola with his partner Claire Gozzo]

-----

Here's a scene with Sirola (as Reno!) with Clint Eastwood in "Hang 'Em High" from 1968...

McSorley's turns 164

[Bill, who has been going to McSorley's since 1964]

McSorley's celebrated its 164th birthday yesterday over at its home (of 164 years!) at 15 E. Seventh St. near Cooper Square. EVG regular Dan Efram shared these photos.

Part of the festivities included, as always, the presence of the musket-toting McSorley's militia...









P.S.

Because someone always brings this up...Per New York magazine several years ago: "Though McSorley’s claims it opened its doors in 1854, NYC historian Richard McDermott used public records to prove it really opened in 1862."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Happy No. 162 McSorley's!

Week in Grieview

[Yesterday morning on 2nd Avenue]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Report: high-end condo in the works for 2nd Avenue explosion site (Tuesday)

Pile driving resumes at the site of the East Village's last gas station, where a 10-floor building will rise (Monday)

Get well soon, Mikey (Wednesday)

NYPD looking for this suspect in armed robbery of boutique on 7th Street (Friday)

Here's more about Facebook's takeover of Kmart's 2nd floor at 770 Broadway (Wednesday)

More details on the all-new playground coming to P.S. 19 (Wednesday)

Former Trash & Vaudeville space on St. Mark's Place to become Wanyoo cyber café (Friday)

Bareburger is leaving 2nd Avenue; new outpost slated for Orchard Street (Friday)

Maria Hrynenko due back in court on March 23 (Thursday)

Tarallucci e Vino closed through March for renovations on 1st Avenue (Tuesday ...Thursday)

31-33 2nd Ave. is on the market — for $40 million (Thursday)

A gym for Stuy Town on 14th Street — aka '7,500 Square Feet of Awesome' (Monday)

197 E.. 3rd St. is for sale — again (Friday)

Mr. White debuts on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Ai Weiwei installations come down (Monday ... Wednesday)

Neapolitan Express pulls into the opening lane on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

Newsstand proposed for Cooper Square (Monday)

---

Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter

The Webster Hall marquee looks to be in danger of falling

[Photo by Michael Giacoppi]

The NYPD and FDNY are currently on the scene here on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue... as you can see in the photo, part of the Webster Hall marquee has pulled away from the landmarked building. The street is blocked off for now.

Will check back later here to see what has transpired. (The NYPD requested a DOB inspection at the site.)

Webster Hall closed last Aug. 10. Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, bought the building from the Ballinger family for $35 million in the spring.

The new owners will renovate the space. They filed the permits in December for the job, which includes interior demolition and structural work to help upgrade the facility and make it ADA compliant.

Updated

William Klayer shared this photo from around 10:30 a.m. ...



And some pics with the FDNY on the scene...





A little later, crews had temporarily propped up the right side of the marquee... the street remains blocked off...



An officer on the scene said that no one actually saw the marquee come undone... one passerby tried to blame the constant construction across the street at the incoming Moxy hotel...

Reminders: The 9th Precinct Community Council meeting is Tuesday night

This Tuesday February 20, is our monthly #Community Council meeting. It will begin at 7PM here @ the Precinct. We look forward to seeing you! #EastVillage #NYC pic.twitter.com/kZMBnBVMAY

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) February 17, 2018

The 9th Precinct tweeted out a reminder about this month's Community Council meeting ... these take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. So that would be this Tuesday, Feb. 20, per the tweet.

The meetings take place at the 9th Precinct, 321 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

This is an opportunity for residents to address any concerns and ask 9th Precinct officials for their input on recent crime statistics.

It's snowing a little

Photo from late this afternoon on First Avenue and Seventh Street by Derek Berg...

The National Weather Service is estimating between 4-7 inches of snow before daybreak. [Updated: So much for that accumulation.] When I was out a little earlier in the flurries some people seemed surprised by this turn of events, as if it was actually June instead of February.

And hold the bun...

Jax taking a look inside Ray's on Avenue A... thanks to Sharon for the photo earlier today...

Noted

An addition to the Starbucks sign on St. Mark's Place at Avenue A ... previously

Thoughts on the 'riveting retrospective' of Peter Hujar's work at the Morgan Library & Museum

Peter Hujar, the subject of a riveting retrospective @MorganLibrary, deserves to be better-known says @deborahsolo. Her review. https://t.co/nVcO4c1AOO

— WNYC 🎙 (@WNYC) February 16, 2018

An excerpt from Deborah Solomon's review at WNYC:

A photographer who specialized in tender black-and-white portraits of his friends along with the less likely subjects of cows and other farm animals, he was one of the essential chroniclers of the East Village scene in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Many of his photographs pay undisguised homage to taut male bodies, reflecting a time of when Stonewall had brought a sense of freedom and AIDS had not yet descended. You can say that he made beautiful, optically pristine photographs about a scene on the verge of vanishing.

The Morgan Library & Museum is open:
Tuesday through Thursday: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday: 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Peter Hujar retrospective at the Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave. at 36th Street, is up through May 20. More details here.

Friday's parting shot

Photo from First Avenue and 12th Street today by Grant Shaffer...

'Alive' and kicking

The next record from Frankie Cosmos — New York native Greta Kline — is out on Sub Pop later next month. The video is for a track called "Being Alive."

The band is opening for Belle & Sebastian this June 8 at Forest Hills Stadium.