Looking at the corner of Avenue A and Sixth Street

I'm not sure what's going on here at this prime slab of East Village real estate at 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street. There was no one around to ask. Venetian food joint Via Delle Zoccolette (which means "song of the pretty girl" -- yeah, I didn't know either) is either going through an extensive remodeling job or it's out of business. Even their canopy is gone.

At the Hotel Edison: An appreciation

Whenever we start reading about old-school joints such as Frankie and Johnnie's facing the wrecking ball, it makes us appreciate the city's remaining institutions even more. Places such as the Hotel Edison and its diner, Cafe Edison (you know, the Polish Tea Room) that Neil Simon and other Broadway types would frequent for its blintzes, borscht and goulash. The hotel, on West 47th Street next to the W smack in the middle of Times Square, was built in 1931, as its Web site trumpets, "in the same grand Art Deco style as Radio City Music Hall." Anecdotes abound about the Edison, like whether the scene in which Luca Brasi gets rubbed out in The Godfather was filmed here...or the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights. Whatever. No matter how dusty around the corners this place is, it remains a treasure from the past.

I have a few more photos on my Flickr page.

"Serial evictees" and rotten tenants

Interesting post by Manhattan-based real-estate attorney Joseph Ferrara about "serial evictees" at the sellsius blog yesterday. As he explains, "A serial evictee will rent an apartment or home with no intention of paying rent (other than the 1 month + security to get in the place). Instead, they plan to get evicted -– after they work the system for up to a year in free rent or cut a deal with the landlord to move out."

I'll let him continue.

"I ran into a few of these clever folks. One of my favorite stories involves an ingenious young woman who stopped paying rent and then staged her own lock-out (with a police report as proof), knowing the penalty in NYC was triple damages plus legal fees. She wanted my client, a poor spoken immigrant, to give her 6 months free rent…. or else. My investigation uncovered the fraud — turned out she was dating a law student who gave her the idea, which she had used several times with success. When I was cross-examining her on the stand and she realized her cover was blown, she literally bolted from the witness stand and tried to run out of the court room. She was tackled by the court officer and hauled into the judge’s chamber (along with her attorney). Only my compassionate client saved her from a new address, with free rent, at the city jail."

OK. Anyway, the post went on to highlight a new site called rottentenant.com -- "landlords venting and helping landlords."

Billy Joel ruins St. Mark's Place: More 80s video fun

We've been having some fun of late finding cheeseball 80s videos shot in New York. Alex at Flaming Pablum has found a few more doozies...(as well as some actually good songs, like Surgery and Freedy Johnston). The dooziest of the doozies, though, belongs to Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" video shot on St. Mark's circa 1986. (The embedding thingee was disabled by request...) Good counsel from Alex regarding this song: "Best to turn the sound down..."

[Note from EV Grieve: I changed some of the original copy in this next section at 12:51...I explain it a little more in the comments...]

Meanwhile, moving away from the cheeseball category, here are some more 1980s videos with New York serving as a backdrop....I submit Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" ...



And, with apologies, Sting's "Englishman in New York" (Why am I apologizing? I like the song/video, but not Sting so much...)



Don't worry -- there are plenty more to come....

Get me out of this Ugly New Building!

I managed to miss the news back in late May of artist Dan Witz adding his own touches to the luxury housing popping up everywhere from here to Brooklyn. In case you did too. He writes in a blog post: "Personally, I can't say I like the new modern architecture very much, it's sterile and so arrogantly disconnected with its surroundings sometimes it seems like giant alien space ships have landed in the night."

Still, the new buildings provide him with a backdrop for creating art. So! "These are photo-based, heavily re-painted stickers, mounted on plastic and glued to the walls of the Ugly New Buildings. I hit the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan, and Bushwick, Dumbo, Greenpoint and Williamsburg out here in Brooklyn."

I'm writing about this now because I just came across some of his work in the East Village and decided to do a little research. (These are his photos below; there are more on his Flickr page.)

Meanwhile, in Saint-Tropez

Please allow this quick diversion away from EV Grieve's usual topics...where we visit the pages of Page Six Magazine for The Ivana-logues, the high-society column written by Ivana Trump. Without comment:

To get to a party in Saint-Tropez last week, guests were asked to board a shuttle bus to the property. Well, I have not been on a bus in 20 years and I’m not about to get on one now. So I see this gorgeous French police guy with his big motorbike. I go up to him in my high heels—the guy has no idea who I am, he just sees a good-looking chick—and I say, “Monsieur, can you give me a ride?” I jump on the bike and he has these huge shoulders and he takes me two-and-a-half miles, through the bushes, to the party. When he drops me off, he says, “You look like Ivana Trump.” I say, “I am Ivana Trump and thank you so much for the ride.” He totally freaked out.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Post scribe thinks turmoil in Africa is so trendy in the news right now!

Claim: New York is the most competitive city in the world

According to the Global Urban Competitiveness Project (as reported in The Economist), New York is the most competitive city in the world.

Of course, there is a problem with this No. 1 ranking, as Gawker weekend editor Ian Spiegelman notes: "Competitive people are assholes, and there are too goddamn many of them here!" [Via Gawker]

Meet Manhattan's fat-cat home buyers (all you need is $45 million!)

The Post has a feature today on the richies who have paid more than $45 million for their Manhattan digs. You know, the $45 Million Club. As the article notes, hedge-funder Daniel Loeb bought a 10,000-square-foot apartment in newly renovated 15 Central Park West for $45.8 million in February. "The place has five bedrooms and five baths - but, in what seems quite a scandal, his view of Central Park is obscured by an adjacent apartment." Perhaps Loeb can pay to have that adjacent apartment removed.

Full moon tonight

Christ, what's next, photos at dusk?

The Times looks at the Stuyvesant Polyclinic

The Times looks at The German Dispensary and adjacent library on Second Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets today. (You know, the Stuyvesant Polyclinic...mansion of death.)

The piece gives a broad history of the space...and a glimpse of the future, possibly dispelling a few of the rumors surrounding its fate:

Now the architect David Mayerfeld is working on an alteration for a future occupant, which he describes only as “a think-tank sort of thing, that works on business problems.”

He plans to strip the paint from the intricate ironwork stairway railings and columns, and will have to add a sprinkler system throughout to retain the open stair hall. He says that removing half a century of dropped ceilings and tacked-on flooring has been a process of discovery, as bits of tile, tin ceiling and other finishes suddenly appear.

Previously: Jeremiah has been following this development...read his coverage here.

Tina Turner takes to the mean streets of NYC

Yesterday, reader Eric E. sent along the link for Sade's "Is it a Crime" video showing some delicious Times Square pornage lights circa 1985.

This morning, I came across Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to do With it" video shot in NYC in 1984. Love the extras from central casting. And, fyi: Don't fuck with Tina on the streets.



Still, nothing beats Pat Benatar's free-the-exotic-dancers scene in "Love is a Battlefield."

And a little Staten Island from Madonna, who turns 50 today.

Not to ruin your Friday evening, but....RUN FOR COVER!

Holy shit.

Hmm, what's on the news?






And why am I sitting in front of a computer at this hour? Seeking shelter?

The Dead Boys do Iggy

Mid-morning musical interlude, and what not

Debbie...Debbie...Debbie...



[Photo by Theresa K.]

A music video takes us back to 1985 Times Square (didn't want to say a Sade music video because then you may not watch...)

Thanks to reader Eric E. for bringing this music video to my attention (via the previous post)...

Just stumbled upon this music video by Sade, Is It a Crime -- it has shots of the 80's Big yellow taxi cab cruising in the old Times Square, and a shot of the Show Palace Theatre and Show World Center on 42nd street and 8th avenue at the the 40 sec. mark. Enjoy.

We have been enjoying! The only downside...Well, aside from being Sade (sorry), the song lasts like seven years. The good cab stuff happens in the first few minutes, though.

As Eric E. said, Enjoy.

And now for something completely different: A note from EV Grieve

Wrapping up the end of week No. 2 over at Curbed. It has been fun, though I wish they wouldn't leave the front door open while the AC is on. Uh, in any event, here are some of the posts from there this last day or so. Thanks for reading.

14 New York Stories

More Beach Volleyball! More Beach Volleyball!

Write What You Know

Before the Boldface Names

Noted for the Record

Hello, New York

From the Department of Good News -- Katz's edition

In an entertaining and thorough post this morning on the state of egg creams, Jeremiah delivers a comforting passage after an interview with Fred Austin, co-owner of Katz's

As for those perennial whispers Katz’s might be vanishing, Fred says, “Every so often I drop the rumor we might be closing, just to boost our business, but I like this place too much. We’ll be around for a long while.”

Meanwhile, here's part of a reel for a documentary this fellow is making about Katz's. Here's more on the project.




And more...

Balls

Mott and Houston.

Reading this week's issue of The Villager

An update on the HOWL! Festival.

Get to know the new CB3 president.

And a fucked-up crime from Downtown Express:

A Lower Manhattan man who was in a crowd that attracted mounted police on 10th Ave. at W. 28th St. at 4:50 a.m. Sun., Aug. 3, punched one of the horses, Buck, in the nose and then grabbed the reins of Buck and another horse, McQuade, endangering the cops riding them, police said. The suspect, Alfonso Figar, 20, who lives on John St., was charged with reckless endangerment and assaulting the officers who were arresting him. Figar had to be wrestled to the ground to be handcuffed, police said.

And speaking of punching horses...forgive me for this.

Blowing smoke in Times Square, and other delights from 1964

Home Movie taken (by Castlemainer) in New York in 1964 on standard 8 film & transfered using a Workprinter XP from Moviestuff.