Love is in the Air tonight in Tompkins Square Park

It's the second year for Films on the Green, brought to us by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. They'll be at TSP the next three Fridays.

From the Web site... tonight!

"Love is in the Air"
Screening: around 8:30 p.m.

Genre: Comedy (2005) | French Title: Ma vie en l’air | Duration: 103 min | Director: Rémi Bezançon | Starring: Marion Cotillard and Vincent Elbaz

In French, with English subtitles, not rated

Yann Kerbec, an instructor for an airline company, is paradoxically afraid of flying. His panic, linked to his birth, stopped him from following the woman of his dreams to the end of the world. Later, he reflects upon his trauma and his love affairs. Yann has reached a crossroads: he must overcome his demons and accept that he must grow up.

Plus d'infos sur ce film

And will there be any illegal bag searches this summer...?

Upcoming French films in TSP:
July 17: "Works"
July 24: "Claire's Knee"

Day 3

Previously.

Grab your duvetyne! It's almost "Date Night"

As mentioned, "Date Night" is filming on Seventh Street/St. Mark's, uh, tonight. Meanwhile, the crew is relaxing and enjoying the catering. We're sure they have a permit for allowing open flames out on Seventh Street!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

The entire Curbed network is live blogging from Superdive right now.

Marc Jacobs has designed two bags named after St. Mark's Place (Racked)

Inside the Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors Club on Seventh Street (The Villager)

The history of 46 E. Houston St. (Tenement Museum)

Jack White's Third Man Records opening a pop-up shop on Chrystie (Brooklyn Vegan)

Another movie in which NYC bites it (The Vulture)

New Yorkers talk loudly and are annoying (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Read about North Brother Island's tragic past (Ephemeral New York) and watch a program on the Island's bird sanctuary (13-PBS)

Natalie Wood in 1950s NYC (Esquared)

Remembering 1984 NYC and Simple Minds (Hunter-Gatherer)

Jason Lee tossed from Max Fish for fighting and being a jackass (Page Six)

Next stop, 500!: And the cargo shorts comment thread continues to grow (EV Grieve)

Looking at 167 Avenue A: Another Hennings-Giraldi production?

In recent weeks, there has been increased activity at the long-dormant 167 Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street, which has housed, in recent years, NoTell Motel and Starlite Lounge. A worker offered the vague "restaurant" when asked what was going into this spot.



The space has been gutted. Someone is putting a lot of money in here. So I checked out the liquor license for the address. According to the SLA:



Jason Hennings and Robert Giraldi? Hmmm... those names may be familiar to you...The vets were behind the now-defunct E.U. on East Fourth Street... and Hennings owns Black Iron Burger on Fifth Street... and Giraldi owns Tonda and Butcher Bay ... (and has done things such as direct Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video). And he went through some epic battles with CB3 in 2006 to try to obtain a liquor license for E.U. Anyway, this all promises to be interesting...

For further reading:
Gastropub is hungry for a beer and wine license (The Villager)

Remembering Babyland: "We all want to go back to the womb, and here we are"

Speaking of NoTell Motel... I was looking for some background on the bar and came across an article from the Times dated June 26, 1994, titled "Set 'Em Up in Crib No. 2, Captain Kangaroo." It was about NoTell owner Deb Parker's new (at the time) hipstery/rather insufferable Babyland on Avenue A near Fifth Street. Used to be a mom-and-pop infant shop called Ben's Babyland. Anyway, brought back a few memories (not all pleasant)...

To the article!

The boys in the white crib looked comfortable enough, sitting together on the edge of the mattress pad, separated by a huge, dirty pink teddy bear. One was sucking on a bottle (filled, incidentally, with a vodka tonic), and the other was silently mowing down an ice cream sundae.

The crib was surrounded by other big boys and girls, most of them in their 20's, who were sitting in undersized chairs and drinking cocktails or quietly reading "Danny the Dinosaur" or "Goodnight Moon."

And!

Babyland appears to be inspired by Roald Dahl, its walls covered with childhood record-album covers and every corner filled with old toys: stuffed animals, supposed-to-be-sweet-but-actually-spooky-looking clowns, the Playskool barn with the mooing door, plastic letter magnets and dog-eared books. Naked Barbie dolls spin out of control on top of a ventilator, and a plastic baby-doll face has been plastered on a blender.

And!

Bar owners in the East Village face the special challenge of courting coolness by offering a hip, novel theme while still remaining cheap...

Childhood nostalgia is indeed a fashion statement, and the summer streets are full of women in little-girl dresses and sneakers, or T-shirts with Josie and the Pussycats decals ironed on to the front. It makes sense that the East Village corners of cool would capitalize on childhood comfort zones: Limbo, a cafe on Avenue B, serves up nonalcoholic treats to the many who pour in to play board games. Babyland will soon offer Twister and pinball in the basement.

And!

"We are all really babies, so this theme is great," said Sonja Patillo, a production coordinator who dragged two friends from Texas to the bar on Tuesday night.
[A]s Jack Dawe, 25, pointed out: "We all want to go back to the womb, and here we are."

P.S.
There's another article on Parker in the Sept. 7, 1997, Times.

"Yes, I'll take the new Famous L. Renfroe 'Florine EP' and, uh, 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King' please"

This week's issue of The Villager looks at the local independent record-shop scene post Virgin Megastore. "Local stores have been closing almost as rapidly as global CD sales have been falling. But for the stores that remain, managers say they’ve noticed an influx of a younger crowd — the last vestiges of Virgin, come to find their Hannah Montanas, Dave Matthews Bands..."

Noted

In Tompkins Square Park.

Dueling rent signs now at former Robin Raj space

Prime space at 14th Street and Third Avenue. Your complete Robin Raj coverage is here.

New store for Red Square strip

Coming soon on Houston between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Noted

Spotted on Second Street near Avenue A. And let me know if you really want the Web address ... your path to becoming rich! rich! rich!

Australian Homemade shuttered and seized

The Australian Homemade ice cream/candy shop on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A abruptly closed down. It was open as of yesterday...and today:




According to the sign, the business was seized...



As you may recall, the St. Mark's shop was "temporarily closed for construction" back in January.

Perhaps it had something to do with this... on Jan. 22, Australian Homemade was inspected by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)...and promptly shut down. According to city records, nine violations were cited, resulting in 93 violation points. (Anything more than 27 violation points means they will conduct a follow-up inspection.) As the DOHMH noted, the violations included "expired milk," "not vermin proof," "personal cleanliness inadequate" and "evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas."

The Australian Homemade at 33 E. Eighth St. remains open.

Day 2

Previously.

Confirmed: LES overrun by idiots at night

Matt Harvey delves into the horror show also known as the LES nightlife scene in this week's NYPress cover story. God help us.

In what was once the center of the gentrification goldrush — the section between the Bowery and Essex Streets north of Delancey — most of the businesses left from the boom are nightspots catering to less-sophisticated outer-borough and beyond patrons. Fat Baby, Mason-Dixon and R Bar, along with restaurants that serve over-priced drinks, like Stanton Social or Spitzer’s Corner, dominate. Residents recently suffered the final affront when Zagat ranked the Lower East Side the city’s “hottest nightlife neighborhood,” replacing its more upmarket rival, the Meatpacking District, already renowned for its annoying nightlife clientele.

Susan Stetzer, the district manager for Community Board 3 and a long-term resident of the Lower East Side, says that the area is now an “entertainment center” for the bridge-and tunnel set. “Residents have given up if they still live there,” says Stetzer. She and other residents complain that the streets, shorn of businesses, are empty during the day because the tenants couldn’t pay rents inflated by the influx of nightlife money. Then, at night, it’s wall-to-wall yokels from the suburbs, which, according to Stetzer, “is really depressing.” She’s an advocate of vanishing mom-and-pop shops and dive bars, and says no one who lives in the LES goes to the clubs and lounges. “If they do, they don’t tell me,” she says. Others claim it’s impossible to find a quiet place to have a conversation and a drink.