Vasmay Lounge is moving

[Photo via Twerking Hard in the East Village]

This past Wednesday, I was yammering away about buildings for sale in the neighborhood that also housed bars. And why this was cause for concern. One of these locations was Vasmay Lounge on Houston at Suffolk. (Site of the former Meow Mix.) Well, Twerking Hard in the East Village reported today that Vasmay's has closed...and moved to the former Essex Ale House location on Essex and Houston. (He also reminds us of one of the former bars in the that Essex Ale House spot -- Filthy McNasty's. Have a few stories about that place...)

Anyway, will be curious to see what happens to the former Vasmay space at 269 E. Houston St.

About that hole in the middle of 7th Street and Avenue B

Uh, it's bigger. Yeah, yeah -- it's funny until someone's Lexus gets swallowed. Then we'll hear about it.


Meanwhile, someone may want to look at the holes on St. Mark's and Avenue A and 10th Street and Third Avenue. Or not.

Fliers around Tompkins Square Park this morning

Wonder how long before someone removes these headlines about the Tompkins Square Riots, from Aug. 6-7, 1988. Don't want to upset the yunnies with any unpleasantness...

Live like Keith Richards, Russell Simmons, Britney Spears...

On June 9, Curbed reported on the former Silk Building apartment that, through the years, Keith Richards and Russell Simmons owned. Most recently, Britney Spears sold it for $4 million. As Curbed noted on June 9, the new owner was trying to flip it for $6,595 million.

Well, the pad above 4th and Broadway can still be yours for $6,595 million. It was featured in the "homes of the week" section in the Post this past Thursday.

According to the Post:

Now you can live like a rock star, pop icon or music mogul! We mean that literally, insofar as this "exclusive" newly renovated penthouse in the Silk Building has been previously owned by Keith Richards, Britney Spears and Russell Simmons. There are four levels with three bedrooms - including a full-floor master suite with two bathrooms (out of 4½ total), a mini-bar, a sitting area with a wood-burning fireplace, hand-rubbed custom cherrywood closets and a private hidden entry door. The upstairs guest suite has a terrace with an "incredible" view of the Empire State Building. The condo is fully wired with a new Crestron smart-home system that controls all the lights, putting you in the mood no matter what music you listen to.

The Boston Globe visits the Bowery

There's a piece in the travel section of The Boston Globe today titled "New art museum in the Bowery attracts galleries -- and gentrifiers."

Among the observations made by the Globe correspondent:

The streets were busy with shoppers, merchants, and tourists on the days I explored. It felt as safe as anywhere in New York, though less crowded than SoHo, where I exited the subway to walk along Prince Street to the museum.

Change is part of the fabric of New York. The Lower East Side is the former home to the world's largest Yiddish-speaking community, but that language is rarely heard on the streets anymore. Even the Streit's Matzo factory is moving to New Jersey, although Katz's Delicatessen (remember "When Harry Met Sally") remains largely unchanged. Locals complain Little Italy is losing its true Italian heart but summer festivals still pack the streets. Chinatown bustles with sidewalk Asian markets and new construction.

If history repeats, the influx of galleries and tourists to the Lower East Side will be followed by the likes of such nearby SoHo icons as the gourmet emporium Dean & DeLuca's flagship store and trendy hotels like The Mercer. Gentrification has begun.

Um, OK. So who wants to tell the correspondent about the Whole Foods on Houston and the Bowery? Or take her for a walk on Ludlow (and how do you go to Katz's and miss, well, everything?)...Or...

Meanwhile, a quick look back [video via John LaCroix]:

Noted: Divorces and legends

Headline in today's Post:

ANGUISH OF 'STOCK' SPLITS
DIVORCES SURGE AS WALL ST. WOES HIT COUPLES' SHOPPING SPREES & HAMPTON GETAWAYS

Completely unrelated, but from the Post today:

BON JOVI-AL NIGHT
LEGENDARY ROCKERS ON A ROLL IN CENTRAL PK

Bon Jovi? Legendary? Since when?

"Why are you bleeding?" -- Iggy Pop on the Tom Snyder Show

The former Christodora House resident talks with Tom in 1980.



Bonus! Iggy chats with Dinah Shore in 1977. (And who is that behind the keyboards with a cigarette?!)

The East Village: "Where you can come live on dreams and tofu"

Campbell Robertson takes a look at the Broadway smasheroo "Rent, " which closes in September after nearly 12 years, in the Times Sunday....("Bohemia takes its final bows")

And?

Now, 12 years later, it would be impossible to see the show and think it was set any time in the past decade. Much of “Rent” has become downright nostalgic, almost jarringly so. Several numbers revolve around pay phones and answering machines (20-somethings with answering machines!). Roger, the gloomy, HIV-positive guitarist with a nasty case of rocker’s block, plays gigs at CBGB, then a landmark of the New York underground music scene, now a menswear boutique. A group of lefty hipsters talk politics with no mention of anyone named Cheney or even the first Bush.

And?

Did “Rent” play a part in changing the neighborhood it celebrates? Probably. “Rent” is the “All the President’s Men” of aspirant hipsters, a great advertisement for Alphabet City (once and never more to be marked off by the avenues Awful, Bad, Crazy and Dangerous), where you can come live on dreams and tofu.

And?

I’d go even further and stipulate: “Rent” is a safe, accessible show that at times struggles, even strains, to put up a dangerous front. The “Rent” marketing campaign has tempered that gritty facade in recent years; the show now, like “The Phantom of the Opera,” advertises itself as something you simply have to see — and come back to — because of its place in the culture.

But think about that. Is there a more accurate reflection of recent New York history? Friendly, clean, low-crime, nonsmoking, trans-fat-free, cabs-that-take-credit-cards New York? A city we can’t honestly pretend is rough and gritty anymore?

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

Here are some short clips from the protest at 47 E. 3rd St. tonight. I was there for the first leg of the protest tour. (UPDATED: Jeremiah and Bob Arihood have in-depth coverage of the evening.)











Earlier:
At the 47 E. 3rd Street protest

Reminder

At the Bowery Wine Bar protest

At the 47 E. 3rd Street protest

Here are a few photos from the protest at 47 E. 3rd St. tonight. I was there for the first leg of the protest tour. It was fairly calm and orderly. The protestors were fenced in by the police, roughly a building and a half away from No. 47. (By the way, the police could not have been nicer. At least while I was there.) UPDATED: Jeremiah and Bob Arihood have in-depth coverage of the evening.

The thrill of victory, the agony of the tour bus

At Wall Street and Water Street.

As long as one doesn't read, "Go see the Sex and the City movie"

BoingBoing has a post on this vending machine on Avenue A (at Fifth Street) that sells ideas on things to do.

iBargain!

Hi. I'm writing this post as I wait in line to buy the new iPhone...
KIDDING. Jeez.

Anyway, from a piece on "iPhoria" in the Post today:

Real-estate broker Micky Pekija Is offering a free iPhone to anyone who rents the four-bedroom Columbus Circle apartment he has listed for $5,990 per month.

"They like that I am giving something back in return," Pekija said. "It may only cost a few hundred dollars, but it is a very cool gadget that people get very excited about."

Welcome to the Lower East Side! (Sponsored in part by Ikea)

So I heard something about Ikea opening in Red Hook recently or something...Anyway, I managed not to pay any attention to the thousands of Ikea ads I saw around town this summer. Until yesterday, when I spotted this at the gateway to the LES...


And this? This ad was at Fulton and Water. So, if I'm getting this, I fork over $2,000 to a Scandanavian-based home products retailer so I no longer have to support local restaurants? And why limit it to Chinese food? I usually get Odessa delivered.