Saturday, July 24, 2010

Today in Tompkins Square Park.....


The SHADOW Presents: The Headless Horsemen, David Peel + The Lower East Side, Sexual Suicide, BANJI and *Star Fucking Hipsters* [Surprise speakers and more bands to be announced]

Verizon is going to blow the budget on brown paint

On Thursday, we noted a Verizon working painting over a few tags on the 13th Street side of the Verison Building at Second Avenue...


[Photo courtesy of evilnyc]

...and just like that, the wall is full again...





Previously on EV Grieve:
First tag reappears on the Verizon building

Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

Ms. Squeegee tags Shepard Fairey

The latest addition to the Shepard Fairey mural on Houston and The Bowery...





Oops. Apologies to Jen Doll... missed that she had noted this yesterday on Runnin' Scared.

Save our community gardens from bulldozers and condos



Also, please note there has been a change in location for the Aug. 10 citywide meeting on the topic:

Attend the public hearing on the proposed rules on Aug. 10 at Chelsea Recreation Center at 430 W. 25th St. at 11 a.m., and speak in favor of protection for community gardens. If you would like to testify, then please notify Associate Counsel, Laura LaVelle, via telephone at 212-360-1335 or e-mail at laura.lavelle@parks.nyc.gov by Aug. 9.


Previously on EV Grieve:
Protect our community gardens

Friday, July 23, 2010

May the Rapid Deployment Force be with you



Rapid Deployment Force circa 1983... one of the bands on the bill for tomorrow's free show in Tompkins Square Park...

The SHADOW Presents: The Headless Horsemen, David Peel + The Lower East Side, Sexual Suicide, BANJI and *Star Fucking Hipsters* [Surprise speakers and more bands to be announced]

Memorable reader comment of the week

There has been a lot of great discussion here this week... from Tompkins Square Bagels coming to Avenue A.... to looking for Sammy... to First Avenue bike lanes... to Crustypunks...

Thank you for the comments, and being part of all this...

Meanwhile, here's an excerpt from a comment that is, well, one that I'll likely never forget...

"My neighbor once threw away her dead cat in a Duane Reade shopping bag." (From World's largest Duane Reade now open on Union Square)

Movie about bicycle messenger currently blocking bike lane

The "Premium Rush" shoot is getting under way on Avenue A this afternoon... thanks to EV Grieve reader Liam for these photos...




Doesn't the crew know what we've been discussing here?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rush Hours

[Updated] Celebrating the 'GoodFellas' anniversary



Wow..."GoodFellas" is 20 years old this year... And there's a special VIP screening of it tomorrow night at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place... and Henry Hill will be there...

Update: Looks as if there is a special discount on the screening ... info here.

Rush hours

Today, "Premium Rush" follows in the fine tradition of "The Smurfs Movie" and "Step Up 3-D" — movies that filmed scenes on Seventh Street and Avenue A of late...



Looks to be a big production....



And the plot:

An action story set in New York City, where a bike messenger picks up a package at Columbia University and subsequently catches the attention of a dirty cop.


Bike messenger?! Why aren't they filming on those new bike lanes on First Avenue and Second Avenue?!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the lead... in the movie directed by the guy who wrote the screenplays for the "Jurassic Park" blockbusters.

Kind of makes me want to watch "Quciksilver" again.

7:45 a.m., First Avenue, July 23



Meanwhile, the commenting continues on [Updated] Looking at the First Avenue's new bike lane and "floating lane."

New look, name for 'The Villager'



Per the paper's editorial this week:

You might have noticed something different about the newspaper you are holding in your hands. For starters, it has a different name on the front page — and that name is in “eco green,” not blue.

Starting this week, East Villagers and Lower East Siders who have enjoyed reading The Villager over the years now have a paper they can call their own. It’s called the East Villager and Lower East Sider, and it will offer the best of what The Villager brings — but with an increased focus on Downtown’s vibrant East Side
.

In addition, each week, the paper will feature a page of Clayton Patterson's vast LES archives.

If you don't pick up a hard copy around the neighbor, then you can check out their new website.... and new digital flipbook.

Congrats to Lincoln Anderson and his crew... as always, I look forward to reading the paper each week...

East Village Cathedral stars alongside Angelina Jolie in 'Salt'

Waaaaay back in May 2009, Angelina Jolie, the former semi-crusty of Tompkins Square Park, came to the East Village while filming "Salt," the mineral-turn-CIA thriller....



The crew filmed on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue inside the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection. In honor of the movie opening today... let's take a look at the role the Cathedral played in the film...



First! Woo! Angelina over here! Here she is on Second Street!



With the ball-in-chain in tow on the Cathedral steps...



Anyway, according to the website, the crew used the Cathedral to replicate the interior of the Makariev Monastery in Russia when it was an orphanage in 1970s Soviet Russia. You see, Angelina plays a spy who may or may not be Russian...so this might be some flashback scene or something...






No idea whether these scenes made it into the movie... Perhaps I'll by a pirated DVD from that guy on the corner for $5 to see.

Also, curious about what kind of location fee the Cathedral received...

Updated: A Scouting Life shares a "Salt" review with us... "It took years, but 'The Last Boy Scout' finally has competition for the most ludicrous action film ever made."

Ouch! That's seriously bad.

And I asked if the Cathedral made the cut. Yes, but!: "They did shoot the orphanage but the scenes there were all pretty soft focus and dreamlike so you didn't see much of it."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the paparazzi will be in the East Village tomorrow (OMG! Angelina!)

I hope that "Salt" is a more exciting movie than these photos

About Angelina Jolie's "semi-crusty phase" in Tompkins Square Park

Everyone getting in on the Russian spy hoopla

Speaking of Russian spies, have you noticed how some people are trying to cash in on the recent alleged-Russian-spy hoopla in the tabs? (Steve Cuozzo sort of did at the Post — he wrote a piece on it the other day...sort of — work with me...)

Which brings me to Flashdancers... you may recall their cab ads featuring the Hooters-waitress-from-Orlando-looking, uh, model in the campaign....



... and now, the new Flashdancers cab ads have a harder, Natasha-cold-war-spy model type...

It's nice to see Ray's again



Hey now, workers removed the sidewalk shed on the Avenue A side too... Melanie has a shot of the workers in action here...


Previously on EV Grieve
:
Sidewalk shed partially down on Seventh and A

Scaffolding to cover Ray's, Yuca Bar