Today in Max Fish tributes

The New York Times takes a look back at the soon-to-be-departed Max Fish, which opened in 1989:

Back then, there were no gastropubs, trattorias or herds of tiara-wearing bachelorettes on the Lower East Side. This was where stolen cars were dumped, stripped, inhabited and torched to charred exoskeletons. But it was also where an abandoned gas station could become an art studio and an urban farmer might grow strawberries in horse manure carted down from Central Park.

On Max Fish’s first night, a benefit was held for a squatter building on Avenue C and two kittens were born in a bathroom.

The article mentions what will happen on the bar's last night on Jan. 31:

" ... the bar’s staff plans to cover the walls ... in pitch black paint."

[Image via]

More Heartbreak for lower Second Avenue

EV Grieve reader Mike sends along a shot of the Heartbreak Cafe sign going up at Second Street and Second Avenue...

Per New York magazine:

"Ingrid Roettele, late of Roettele AG, returns to the East Village to partner with her former neighbor, the owner of Pylos. No Greek here, though: strictly rösti, fricadellen sliders, and creamy sauerkraut soup."

A Select bus showdown on Second Avenue

Speaking of the M15 Select .... An East Village resident heading home passed along this story from yesterday evening... Two women walked up to an M15 Select bus yesterday in the 60s on Second Avenue. The two hadn't even been to the ticket kiosk when the bus departed ... to keep on schedule and all. Well, the women were pissed that the driver didn't wait for them while they bought their tickets.

So, rationally, they ran after the bus. Per the EV resident: "When he stopped the bus at the light, they stood in front of it."



"Lady in the hat stood there for 15 minutes. Bus driver did not budge because 'he gets paid to sit here.' Driver finally let us out the back door. For all I know they're still there. Are they heroes? Villains? I hope she doesn't try this with a subway train. Or do I?"

This Saturday night: Tompkins Square Everywhere/Save Charas Projection

This Saturday night, John Penley and filmmaker Vlad Teichberg (right) are holding an event at the former P.S. 64/Charas space on East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C... This is a makeup date from the Halloween night protest/fiesta that organizers cancelled after Penley was maced the night before... Teichberg will be projecting some of his work on the Charas wall... Later on, they'll be a holiday party at Kate's Joint on Avenue B... The Charas event starts at 10 p.m.

[Photo courtesy of Bob Arihood]

Gonna be a long winter: The Penistrator strikes first snow

As I first reported, we had just a dusting of snow Monday night hereabouts — a dusting ... but that didn't stop you know who from making his or her first appearance of the young 2010-11 winter season...



Thanks to a tipster for this photo, taken on Bleecker and Jane Street in Marc JacobsVille. Uh-oh ... a little off the beaten path for this icy pork sword, don't you think? ... During the first snowfall of the 2009-10 season, the Snow Shaft Bandit stuck to his or her usual East Village confines. Now a migration to the West Village? Or — shudder — has the penistrator spawned copycats in other neighborhoods?

Oh, boy... it's gonna be a long winter with this "snowfitti" vandal on the loose... Eyes open, people. Eyes open.

Previously on EV Grieve:
An EV Grieve investigative report: In search of the Penistrator

A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

Snow is in the forecast tonight, which means....

Willow wood

Last Friday, a local East Village hyperlocal blogger became a bit hysterical, nearly causing his readers to storm city offices to demand why workers savagely hacked cut back the willow tree on East Eighth Street near Avenue C ...



Well! Since then, several readers have told me, er, the blogger, that — despite the appearances — this is actually just fine for the tree. So, in the sober light of day... Several readers passed along links to willow pruning forums and self-help groups... As one willow tree forum member said, "willows are very tolerant of massive pruning (you could cut it back to a stump and it will still re-sprout)."

Meanwhile, during the weekend, I took a walk by to see the tree for myself... there was a stack of firewood for the taking... (not to mention some random mail — oh look, Discover Card!)



...and workers hacked down the other tree on the lot...



We'll come back for a look in the spring

A Building sidewalk shed sits and waits

Late last summer, workers erected a sidewalk shed outside the World Famous A Building on 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... Per the DOB, there's a permit for the shed "for emergency repair to balconies."

Can't be that much of an emergency... we have yet to see any work take place on the balconies... as a walk by the other morning suggests...



Previously.

Meanwhile, coming soon to a park near you

An EV Grieve reader shares an aerial view of sorts from last winter in Tompkins Square Park... And sources have told me there is a chance for snow flurries today....

LESBentley

Houston and Suffolk. Via @LSDiPalma.

When plastic chairs get caught in trees

Ev Grieve reader Bobby Williams noticed some police activity this afternoon around 4:30 on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... roughly in front of Joe's...





The word on the street: Somehow a plastic chair got stuck in tree. Maybe it fell off a nearby roof? The wind? Mysterious!



As you can see, the police eventually got their chair.

Rise of the Machines (SBS ticketing edition)

Ev Grieve reader Mike note the MTA working on additional Select Bus ticket machines coming to First Avenue and 14th Street... should help the crowds waking for tix during rush hours...




Any other requests for the MTA?

Tracing the origins of those weird angles off the Bowery

In preparation for a show at La Mama on East First Street in January, artist Jennifer Williams has been researching the footprint of the buildings around the gallery just off the Bowery... She found property maps via the NYPL digital archives dating back to 1853...

In looking at aerial views of the Bowery and Houston intersection, she noticed that some of the nearby buildings were erected at an odd angle.

As she writes on her blog, Bowery 2.0: "[I] learned that the weird angle actually relates to old farm property lines. I'm not entirely sure why the buildings from 1867 seem to follow the lines so closely, my guess is that the grid was still relatively new and the plots of land were being sold in parcels to individuals by the farm owners. I find the fact that even new buildings follow this footprint fascinating."




Click on image above a few times to compare the grids between First Avenue and the Bowery at different points from the past 150-plus years....

Visit the La Mama site for more on the show, featuring Williams and Wilfredo Ortega. Writes Williams about her portion of the show: "It's an amalgamation of memory, images, and research which will become a site specific collage construction (or deconstruction) of the Bowery’s present state.”

I'll have more from Williams on the exhibit later...

Meanwhile, Jeremiah has more today on the rapidly changing area around the Mars Bar. Read it here.

The last bastion

Since learning the Mars Bar will likely close, I've been trolling for Mars Bar photos ... here's a rather sad one on Flickr via.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal checks in with a story today titled Beloved Bars Take Dive. Nothing really new in the piece ... Here's the lead-in, which nicely sums it up:

Even the regulars at Mars Bar were surprised that their beloved hangout — a graffiti-encased dive of an East Village bar that had survived the recent arrivals of a Whole Foods market, luxury condo buildings and trendy restaurants from the likes of Keith McNally and Daniel Boulud — had managed to hang on.

"It's the last place left and now they're taking it away," said Joel Magee, who managed a rotating schedule of artists hired to paint the scrappy bar's murals. "It was inevitable, really. We're all thinking about where we're gonna go, what we're going to do. There is talk about it coming back, but nobody really thinks it can."

East Village resident ticketed for walking bike on sidewalk

An EV Grieve reader sends along a story from this past weekend... She had been at Russ and Daughters, and was walking her bike east along Houston.

Near Ludlow Street, a police car pulled over. The officers demanded to see her ID. She handed over her license, and was made to wait for nearly 30 minutes while the officers sat inside the car. (A detail worth noting — both officers were smoking cigars...)

Per the reader: "They issued me a court summons for riding my bike on the sidewalk, which I wasn't doing. [I never] put my feet to the pedals. The officers completely refused to offer any explanation whatsoever."

So, was this just one of the things... like the one person busted for hanging flyers on light poles full of flyers? Or has the NYPD been issuing tickets like this of late? Anyone else recently receive a rather frivolous ticket like this?