Thursday, July 24, 2008

Two good shops

On tiny Cliff Street, which runs between Fulton and John.


And next door, just past the entrance to the parking garage:



Meanwhile, if you go south on Cliff Street, you'll see the 31-story apartment building completed in 2001 that previously served as an NYU dorm. The building is managed by our good friends at Rockrose Development Corporation.

No ball playing for the Ukrainian students

As this sign shows, the students at St. George's Ukrainian Catholic School on Sixth Street near Cooper Union are not allowed to play ball.



Not sure what kind of ball this may be. (Tetherball? Kick ball? Dodge ball? Foosball? Stick ball?) Just ball, OK? The section of the school that houses this sign was opened in 1958. How long after that did the killjoy faculty put up this sign...? How long have these students been deprived of playing ball? (And what is the penalty if they're caught?) Anyway, given what's developing directly across from the school now on Taras Shevchenko Place, I'm sure I could find some people who would arm the students with plenty of bats and balls for recess.

Now and then: 216 E. 7th Street

1979.

2008.


[Photo of 216 E. 7th St. in 1979 by Marlis Momber. Lousy photo of 216 E. 7th St. in 2008 by EV Grieve.]

They went and killed Teddy


Trash day, Ninth Street.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

In front of the Dora Park Apartments

For just a brief moment tonight, while walking on 7th Street between A and B, it felt like I was in a different era.

Until I saw the air conditioners.

And the other cars.

About that nice little family-owned pharmacy that I'd go to

My doctor's office is on Madison Avenue in the 30s, one of those nondescript buildings full of, uh, doctors. On the ground level, there was a small, family-owned pharmacy. This was, of course, quite convenient for getting prescriptions filled. They were fast and friendly. When I went to my doctor this week for an appointment:



One of the maintainance guys in the lobby said that the pharmacy couldn't afford the rent anymore; that they'd have much more space in the Bronx for a lot less money. Of course.

It's still a fairly dull stretch of Madison Avenue, but, as Jeremiah noted in March, change is coming. Quickly.

On 33rd Street and Madison, site of a new 33-story condo-hotel combo.

The Jamie Dimon Players present: "Vikram Pandit Can Be Such A Jerk"

At One Manhattan Chase Plaza (Liberty and Nassau).

On the M15


(Personally, I think MTA rhymes better with "the way.")

Heading east on Third Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Desperately Seeking 1985 New York City


There's a free screening tonight of 1985's
Desperately Seeking Susan at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint. It's a silly movie (stolen ancient Egyptian earrings! amnesia! mistaken identities!) that I enjoy watching every summer. (In fact, I just watched it Sunday night.) As Brian J. Dillard writes in his review at allmovie.com, "A classic Hollywood screwball comedy transposed to modern-day Manhattan, Desperately Seeking Susan offered mid-'80s moviegoers a mall-friendly version of hip New York style, much like Madonna did throughout her early musical career." Hmm, that's about right. I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers -- Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)

Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.

Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.

On St. Mark's.

On Second Avenue.

In front of Love Saves the Day.



Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!


Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!

Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.)




Now, some Desperately Seeking Susan trivia from Wikipedia, which means it may or may not be right:
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead. 
* Bruce Willis was up for the role of Dez. Melanie Griffith was up for the part of Susan as well.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In case why you were wondering why some SATC fans are now into Richard Hell

The dog days of summer

This past weekend, I walked by that new apartment building going up on 13th Street near Third Avenue. It was boarded up; no activity going on...

After seeing the attack-dog sign, I knocked on the plywood. Made some noise. Threw a rock. No barking. Nothing. Perhaps it was the dog's day off. Or, given the economy, maybe one attack dog has to work several different sites during the weekend. Or, given that it was about 500 degrees out, and there was no one around to give the dog fresh water...Or maybe there never has been a dog on site...

Revisiting the sink hole in the middle of 7th Street and Avenue B


The cone is either sinking or melting...

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that sink hole in the middle of 7th Street and Avenue B

Outside that newish (and rather ugly) real-estate office on 11th Street and Second Avenue



They just didn't get it

A quick note on the end of "Siskel & Ebert"/"Ebert & Roeper." As Roger Ebert noted yesterday on his Web site, "After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named 'Siskel & Ebert' and then 'Ebert & Roeper' in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it."

I still haven't forgiven them (from 1989!) for trashing one of the greatest bad films ever (partially) shot in NYC.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Looking at Socialite Olivia Palermo's "Sweet Spot"


Page Six Magazine yesterday took a close-up look at 22-year-old socialite Olivia Palermo's new one-bedroom Tribeca apartment in a piece titled "Living: Socialite Olivia Palermo's Sweet Spot."

The lead:

“I’m so excited to be living in my own home,” says socialite Olivia Palermo, surrounded by clothes racks, shoes and handbags in her colorful, 63-square-foot walk-in closet accented with a zebra-print rug. Olivia is photographing outfits she has selected for a short trip to Los Angeles so she’ll know exactly what she wants to wear while she’s there. “This is the space I love the most. You can see it the second you walk in,” she says. “It represents me.”

Inspired by pictures of Mariah Carey’s spacious NYC home . . ..

This is the point that I stopped reading the article. If you'd like to continue....

[Photo: Karin Kohlberg, Page Six Magazine New York Post]

“The hotel guests also used to be culturally hip people. Now we get Mom and Dad from Cedar Rapids. It’s like living at Motel 6.”


Page Six Magazine on the Hotel Chelsea:

“It’s chaos here,” says one resident....many tenants haven’t paid rent (because there’s no one around to pay it to), and there’s been no super on duty for repairs. Tenants also say they are worried that, at some point, their rents will double. While the building is rent stabilized, the apartments aren’t registered with the city, and a lot of the leases aren’t on the books.

For further reading:

[Photo: Katie Orlinsky, Page Six Magazine, New York Post]

Ninth Street Espresso coming to 10th Street

This summer, at the site of the former Tompkins Square Bakery next to Life. [Update: There seems to be some confusion... thanks to the commenter for the note. The bakery's address was 341 E. 10th St., now home to the real-estate office... The Ninth Street Espresso's Web site said they are moving into 341 E. 1oth St. I'll get this right eventually. And none of this will be on the midterm. Regardless, there will be a new Ninth Street Espresso location on 10th Street...]



A storefront and sign that I like

At the Stapleton Shoe Company, on Trinity Place at Rector, just south of the American Stock Exchange.



Stopped by Houston and Avenue D to pay my final respects





Meanwhile, on Avenue D between Third Street and Fourth Street: