No soap for you

Several readers have forwarded me a link to a Broke-Ass Stuart post titled Fuck the Mars Bar ... an excerpt:

If you’ve never been there, Mars Bar is pretty much the last of the old East Village/Lower East Side punk bars. It smells like shit, the walls are completely covered in graffiti, the jukebox only plays punk, the shots are poured huge, and the patrons are old, surly or both. These are all good things that help make a respectable dive bar. But when you ask the bartender for some soap (because some big punk fucker licked your friend’s face, uninvited, and she wants wash off the gross saliva) and the barkeep answers, “This is the Mars Bar man. There’s no soap in the Mars Bar,” that’s when you know the place has become a parody of itself.

Really dude? Are you fucking kidding me? There’s no soap because this is the Mars Bar?

Brisk sales reported for the Save Ray's clothing line, though no one has bought a thong yet

Matt Rosen at Neighborhoodr has an update on the Save Ray's clothing and accessorites line:

Sales of T-Shirts at Ray’s store have been brisk, and the online shop has seen orders from such exotic places as “France,” “Germany,” and “California.”

The most popular items thus far have been the Organic Women’s Fitted T-Shirt, Women’s Cap Sleeve T-Shirt, and the Original Fitted T-Shirt.

No one’s bought a Thong yet (prudes!), though we did sell the first Dog T-Shirt to owner Kathy and her four-legged friend, Pee-Wee.

East Village resident Conrad Oakey designed the Save Ray's logo. He and Rosen then helped launch the Save Ray's Cafe Press store, which you can access here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Save Ray's clothing and accessories line

[Photo of Ray via Neighborhoodr]

Why the Kobe Bryant video game mural was removed

As we reported last week, the Kobe Bryant video game ad on Avenue A near 12th Street was painted over by workers... The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has more on what happened here in its most recent update (second item):

GVSHP and the East Village Community Coalition had long called upon the city to take action against the billboard which violated zoning regulations and, which some argued, violated an agreement to maintain the community mural for 10 years. Following complaints about the billboard from GVSHP and many others, and a great deal of attention from blog EV Grieve, the City inspected the site, issued several violations, and scheduled hearings on the violations. The sign was finally removed in late March.

And thanks to Christine Champagne at MediaPost for digging into the background of this wall in a feature last December.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Kobe Bryant's slam chunk

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A

Black Market continues to look less forbidding

The specialties of the house were added to Black Market's front window on Avenue A yesterday...



Upon opening in February, the owners reportedly planned to keep the iron gates down even when they were open... And last month, the gates were raised... So maybe they want to be a neighborhood joint after all?

Previously on EV Grieve:
So Bono, Michael Stipe, Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Spike Jonze and the Olsen twins walk into a bar on Avenue A...

Mysteries: That low mechnaical hum from behind Sixth Street

An EV Grieve reader writes in with the following...

I live on 6th between Ave A and B, north side of the street, middle of the block. Our bedroom in the the back of the building. The past few nights I've noticed a low mechanical hum that rises and falls like a wave. It starts at about 11 pm and continues through the night (or at least the next few hours I was awake).

It is almost definitely coming from outside/backyard. Or possibly the basement? I've only been in the apt. for three months and have only noticed it in the last three days, if that gives any clues. My girlfriend hears it too so that rules out delusions...

Ever notice this or hear other complaints?

I have not. In such situations, I usually blame ConEd. Or maybe UFOs/fireballs, like the one spotted last summer.

Anyway, do you have any ideas or explanation as to what this may be?

Verizon building still brown

Last Friday, Woodland Creature noted that the Department of Sanitation painted over all of the cool graffiti on the Verizon building on the 13th Street side leading up to Second Avenue...



We stopped by during the weekend to pay our respects...



The Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) figures the wall will be tagged again soon... despite the presence of the video cameras, which may or may not even work...



Meanwhile, EV Grieve reader Kim was walking by when the anti-graffiti team arrived on the scene...



...and snapped this one last photo...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

Mini Thai Cafe mysteriously reopens as Mini Thai Cafe

After being closed a good 8-9 days, Mini Thai Cafe has reopened on Avenue A near Seventh Street ... We were told the eatery would be combined with Avenue A Sushi next door for one big restaurant... However, an EV Grieve operative stopped in the restuarant over the weekend and was told by a manager that the deal next door fell through... And last night, the slightly remodeled restaurant was open as usual...



The fate of Avenue A Sushi is unknown... The formerly colorful gate ...



...was painted over by workers yesterday...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Mini Thai Cafe and Avenue A Sushi to be combined into one new restaurant?

Today in nail salon openings

New on Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street... Previously this location was home to Top A Nails, who moved one block to the south to the old old Blue space.



I have nothing against nail salons, but doesn't it seem like there are already plenty around here...?

Meanwhile, another salon opened two weeks ago on 10th Street near First Avenue in the former JC Penney catalog store... the chatty owner said she moved her shop from 13th Street between University and Fifth Avenue after the landlord jacked up her rent to $11,000 a month...



EV Grieve: Your Hyperlocal Source for the Very Latest in Nail Salons©.

Momofuku Milk Bar wants someone who'll work all the time

Per Craigslist:

momofuku milk bar seeks JUNIOR MANAGER (east village & midtown)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2010-04-05, 9:02PM EDT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Momofuku is an award-winning and high-volume restaurant group (Noodle Bar, Ssam Bar, Ko, Ma Peche, Milk Bar).
Our team is young, fast-paced and hard-working.
We value organization and attention to detail.

Momofuku Milk Bar is a collaborative environment, drawing talent from those who have worked at places like bouley, del posto, diner, eleven madison park, jacques torres, magnolia bakery, nobu downtown and wd-50.

We are looking for a junior manager! Must have 24/7 availability.

We manage the day-to-day operations of both milk bars (east village and midtown).
We love our job and are looking for like minded, hard working individuals that are up for any job, big or small.
We are growing and would love to hire people who want to grow with us.

[Image via]

More on Rev. Billy's arrest

Following up on the item from earlier today....

Some excerpts from Courthouse News (via Gawker):

The self-ordained Rev. Billy Talen was arrested on Easter Sunday after putting a "holy hex" on JPMorgan Chase bank, which he calls the nation's largest financier of coal-mining mountaintop removal. The former New York City mayoral candidate and his green-robed chorus put the hex on two bank branches, saying Morgan Chase has helped destroy more than 450 Appalachian mountains, deforested 800 square miles and polluted more than 1,200 miles of streams.

The police did not arrive until the choir reached a second branch, at Astor Place, where the choir left another "deposit" of West Virginia dirt.

As Talen concluded his sermon, NYPD Officer William Svenstrup ordered him to withdraw his deposit of dirt from the bank floor.

The Rev. Billy refused.

"Then you are coming with me," Svenstrop said, while another officer took out the cuffs, and used them, and the choir chanted, "Free speech! Free press! Free people! Repressed!" Then the choir sang the text of the First Amendment.

Choir member Gaylen Hamilton said in an interview that Talen's wife was two weeks overdue on her pregnancy and had started experiencing contractions that morning. Several other choir members were worried that Talen would miss the birth of his child.

But at the 9th Precinct, an officer said that Talen had been released shortly after his arrest. Arresting Officer William Svenstrup, spotted at the precinct, would not reveal the charges, if any, against the Rev. Billy.

Marketers at McDonald's Germany think of us as cappuccino cupcakes

I spotted this doozy at Eater National. As they report, "McDonald’s Germany has just introduced cupcakes inspired by four different neighborhoods in New York City. Each ad features a Manhattanite from each 'hood explaining why the cupcake is characteristic of where they live."

And Eater used Google translator to translate the ads... here's the East Village representative: "Here come from the most famous artists in New York. And here in dozens of tourists looking for new art galleries. I now play Andy Warhol once and tell everything what I like to art. This cappuccino cup cake = for example: all great art."


McDonald's in Germany is here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Steve for the above photo taken yesterday at 10th Street and First Avenue....

Construction next door damages Action for Progress day care center on Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Remembering Bleecker and Christopher (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Avenue A sidewalk shed gaining in popularity (Neither More Nor Less)

How to find a cab (The New York Times)

Ron Kuby to defend Billy's Antiques (DNAinfo)

LES in a pickle over disappearing tradition (AFP)

From @dpentecost on Twitter: Seen on T-shirt, Prune customer 1st St: "Selling Out is the new Keeping it Real"

And Steve also captured some new, always-popular crosswalk hijinks, here at Avenue C and Fourth Street....

Rev. Billy arrested at Astor Place

Two weeks ago, there were multiple reports of the coal mountain mud left at the Chase branch at 10th Street and Second Avenue ... Rev. Billy & the Church of Life After Shopping, complete with the makings for another coal mountain, were holding protests last evening at the Chase branches at St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue and on Astor Place... according to readers R and M, Rev. Billy was arrested at Astor Place, as their photos show...





So, in the last few days, the 9th Precinct has arrested Rev. Billy and the chef of Pulino's... hmmm....

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on that coal mountain mud pile at Chase

Used book store opening on Avenue A

Shockers! An EV Grieve operative reports that a used book store is opening at the former Etherea Records space on Avenue A between Fifth Street and Fourth Street... A crew was working on the space this past weekend... opening date expected around May 1...



Wow. A used book store and a fishmonger opening soon on Avenue A...? I'll be passing out in the corner now for a few minutes.

Making the rats feel at home in the Mystery Lot

Courtesy of the The Antagonist Movement. In the beloved Mystery Lot.