EV Grieve

Monday, June 18, 2012

'Boardwalk Empire' returns to the East Village tomorrow

You've probably seen these signs about "Boardwalk Empire" filming interior scenes around here tomorrow ... it will impact portions of 11th Street and 12th Street... and First Avenue and Second Avenue... (tow trucks arrive tonight at 10)

[Click image to enlarge]

Last July, the HBO series filmed in part at John's of 12th Street ...

[EVG reader Han Shan]

The folks at John's confirmed that "Boardwalk Empire" would again be filming there, though they weren't aware of all the details just yet ...

Meanwhile, we also saw the filming signs outside EVG favorite DeRobertis on First Avenue...

...a seemingly perfect location for the show set in the 1920s-1930s ...

We asked someone at DeRobertis about this... while she agreed that their cafe would be be a great fit for the show, "Boardwalk Empire" would not be filming there... Perhaps another time...

And a bonus photo... a hallway in the building above DeRobertis... via Dave on 7th, who points out that the walls and ceiling are all pressed tin...

Sidewalk's new-look sidewalk cafe

A bit of a sidewalk beautification project here on Avenue A at East Sixth Street... on Friday, Bobby Williams noted the arrival of some flower boxes for the outdoor space...

...and it's a good thing that Sidewalk workers bring them in at night. Have you noticed how people continue to dump the flower boxes at various restaurants, such as here at Numero 28 on Second Avenue?

Signage appears at new hotel on the Vegas strip the Bowery

Been a long time since we last looked at the incoming Wyndham Garden Hotel on the southern stretch of the Bowery (at Hester) ... Our friend Curt Hoppe sent us this photo of the new sign late last week...

BoweryBoogie has more about it here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Wyndham Garden Hotel starting to sprout on the Bowery

Last night at Nice Guy Eddie's

Nice Guy Eddie's closed for good last night after a 16-year run on Avenue A... EVG reader Rob sent a long a few photos from the evening/early morning...

...and later, at the end of the night (morning) ...

Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food" coming next here via a team led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

And how was your weekend?

A few observations via Twitter...

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Somewhere along the High Line

Photo today by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

[East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue]

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave. (Tuesday)

Mysterious plywood arrives at the Mystery Lot (Friday)

Yogurt Crazy is coming (Monday)

The big dig starts at 74-84 Third Ave. (Monday)

One of the nicer homes in the East Village finally sold after four years (Tuesday)

Live in Bret Easton Ellis' old place (Thursday)

Nice Guy Edie's closes today (Thursday)

And our post Wednesday about moving away from the East Village yielded 71 comments... including this one:

Anonymous said...
"There's a happy medium. Don't let the new crowd force legitimate concerns and lamentations to an absurd extreme."

There was a happy medium, it happened in the early 90s. If I could pick a point of reference I would point to the time when Wigstock came to Tompkins Square Park and was held there for a few years after. I think the first time was around 1993, but I could be wrong. Speaking for myself, I would agree that yeah, nobody wants to go around taking their life in their hands and watching their back every moment in a bombed out crime ridden neighborhood.

But there was a time in the EV when there was a nice mix of grit, and the people were generally geared more toward (for lack of a better way of putting it)a DIY anti-materialistic, anti-mainstream mentality and they could pursue that lifestyle without paying an astronomical rent. It wasn't cheap either, but it wasn't entirely out of reach. This is not revisionist history, this is real because I lived in this time and in this place and I saw it with my own eyes. The reason why there is so much reaction to what's happening right now is BECAUSE this doesn't necessarily exist any longer.

The neighborhood may have changed alot over the decades, but let's face it people, this is a really BIG change because it is so unlike anything that's happened before. It's not like previous eras when when white, non-ethnic people came down to plant their flag of art and creativity in the EV soil. This is about a faceless, generic white-washing that could care less about the traditions of the neighborhood. It's about a wave of people that heard it was a fun, sort of free-for-all, piss all over the place area.

The difference between then and now is that regardless of who came to the East Village in the past, what their socio-economic backgrounds were, that they were maybe bad-asses willing to hunker down in squats and live a real urban guerrilla lifestyle, or just regular people that wanted to be in a creative environment, the focus was more or less the same: art and music, and living as far away from the mainstream as possible. The reason for the change now is because for whatever reason, the young people who are attracted to city living, lived their lives up to this point with different values. Values that by all appearances seem extremely shallow and filled with entitlement. Why this happened to kids born in the 80s and early 90s is a question for the sociologists.

Personally I can say that when I was in my 20s and even now, I was interested in OLD things. I didn't dismiss them because they weren't new. The East Village and NYC used to be a place that made you feel very connected to the past and that is now vanishing. All I can say is too bad for the frat people. If they see the light later on in life they'll realized that they wasted the best years of their lives.

JUNE 13, 2012 12:59 PM

Billie Joe has a boner

Also today today in important news items... it was inevitable that someone would deface the John Varvatos/Green Day ad on the old CBGB Gallery space ...

And, sure enough, a Penistrator imitator doodled on Billie Joe Armstrong...