14 year old against Bloomy's third term (no matter where she may actually go to school)

LimeWire has the following post on Rachel Trachtenburg:

At 14 years old, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players drummer (and daughter of its singer/guitar player Jason and costumer/slideshow operator Tina) is already playing a more active role in local politics than most of us ever will.

New Yorkers are, by now, familiar with the proposal to extend term limits and allow our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to run for the city's highest office a third time. As part of the process, the city council is now holding public hearings, allowing citizens to argue for or against the plan. On Thursday, Rachel spoke to the council, making the case against allowing Bloomberg to seek a third term.

In her testimony, Rachel told the council that, because Bloomberg raised taxes to give money to the Yankees and move the fountain in Washington Square Park slightly (and continuously sided with landlords on rent stabilization and affordable housing issues, I might add), her family was priced out of their East Village home. Now, they live in Bushwick, where their friends are often mugged at gunpoint. "Any monkey can raise taxes," says Rachel. "No offense to monkeys."

Meanwhile, BushwickBK.com has an important addition to the story:

A minute of research shows that Rachel is enrolled in school in SEATTLE — which means her family’s apartment in New York is at best a business necessity and at worst a luxury or status item, even if it is now in Bushwick. Boo. Hoo.

Physical Graffiti 33 years later

From the WOW Report (via BoingBoing):

Artist Lou Cannizzaro went back to 96 St Marks Place in Manhattan 33 years after that location starred on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album. Robert Plant should have aged so well.

Wikipedia has this about the cover art:

The album's sleeve design features a photograph of a New York City tenement block, with interchanging window illustrations. The album designer, Peter Corriston, was looking for a building that was symmetrical with interesting details, that was not obstructed by other objects and would fit the square album cover. He said:

We walked around the city for a few weeks looking for the right building. I had come up a concept for the band based on the tenement, people living there and moving in and out. The original album featured the building with the windows cut out on the cover and various sleeves that could be placed under the cover, filling the windows with the album title, track information or liner notes.

The two buildings photographed for the album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City. But to enable it to fit, the building (which is actually a five-story building) had to be cropped out. So for the album cover it became a four-story building instead. The buildings used on the cover were the same that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were filmed in front of in the Rolling Stones music video "Waiting on a Friend."

Erection '08 and other political fliers

Much as already been made about NYC artist Ron English's Obama/Lincoln fusion portraits...(this one on Avenue C near Seventh Street).



Meanwhile, more and more of Jenny's Palin creations are now popping up in the neighborhood...(this one at 13th Street and Second Avenue)



And this is my first sighting of Ron English's McCain/Viagra ad (this one on Seventh Street and Avenue C)...They appeared in Los Angeles in the spring.

Now we're dealing

This is the first flier I've seen since the Great Depression of 2008 started in which potential tenants are being offered something for free...like one month's rent.

Noted

From the Ivana-logues in Page Six Magazine this weeek:

My husband Rossano left for Honduras last week (don't ask me where that is) and I am not a happy camper. He's doing a TV show called L'Isola dei Famosi, which means "Island of the Famous." It's the Italian version of Survivor but with celebrities. I am freaking out! He's going into the jungle where you can get all kinds of diseases, and he went through a thousand pills and malaria shots. For some reason the show asked me to send his wedding tux to this hotel in Honduras. I said, "You think I'm going to send a $10,000 Dolce & Gabbana suit to Honduras? UPS takes like three weeks. It's never going to arrive because somebody will steal it." Countries like that are beautiful but they are very poor, OK? So I am passing on that. Rossano is just looking for adventure. But I am really slightly worried. In the jungle there are no mobile phones, no computers and no cigarettes, but there are plenty of tarantulas, cockroaches and snakes. I hate those slimy things. I can deal with the sharks on Wall Street and the barracudas on Madison Avenue, but this is really too much. And I honestly cannot see Rossano eating snakes unless it is smoked eel at Nobu.

At the Domino Sugar Refinery

By now, there are likely thousands of photos posted around the internets from the open house (factory?) at the Domino Sugar Refinery earlier today. (Every person I saw there had a camera.) So here are a few more shots. As you probably know, developers want to turn this iconic factory from the 1880s north of the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn into pricy condos and what not. Neighborhood activists wants to see the riverfront property preserved and redeveloped as affordable housing.
















(No one was allowed inside, of course. Still! Here's what it looks like from that vantage point.)

Lousy economy preventing people from overpaying for Yankees memorabilia

The last ball hit out of Yankee Stadium, courtesy of Jose Molina, was one of several big ticket items that failed to sell in early bidding yesterday at Madison Square Garden on a trove of Yankees artifacts. It was expected to fetch up to $400,000, but was pulled after offers fell short of the suggested opening bid of $100,000. (espn.com)

Nice furniture that won't look right in an East Village apartment

In this week's Habitats in the Times, a couple struggles to find the right apartment for their unique furniture, particularly an antique mahogany table she was going to inherit from her grandmother:

It certainly wasn’t going to look right in one of those swaths of raw space near St. Marks Place or in any of the other 138 spaces, downtown and uptown, that the couple checked out in the course of a year in the mid-1990s.

The Sheraton-style table required just the right setting, as did the circa 1790 Hepplewhite serpentine-front sideboard. So, apparently, did Ms. Houlgrave, 46, a model who has worked for Glamour, Vogue and Self magazines, and who has a second career as a wedding and fashion photographer.

“I didn’t want to live in the stinky East Village,” she said with characteristic directness. “It was so unattractive. I am from Richmond, Virginia.”

The couple now lives on the Upper West Side.

An EV Grieve FYI -- in case you were going to buy a shitload of FroYo today at 16 Handles

The guy who decorated the new bar in edgy Alphabet City

The real estate section in the Post this week includes a profile of renowned interior designer Carleton Varney. He designed the fancy new cocktail lounge Ella, 9 Ave. A, in the Lower East Village -- as its owners refer to the area -- that serves $12 cocktails. (Reservations are referral only.) Here's a passage from the Post:

Later, down in edgy Alphabet City, a rather different crowd raised the roof at the public unveiling of Varney's latest design project, a duplex cocktail lounge and piano bar called Ella.

At first glance, Varney, 69, hardly seems an obvious choice to decorate a bar on Avenue A. As chronicled in "Houses in My Heart," the designer built his considerable reputation working in far more upscale enclaves.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New bar on Avenue A has pianos, fancy drinks and referral-only reservations

Fall skies

The sky is not falling.

A Fucked Up cover

Fucked Up and, urp, Moby cover the Ramones...part of Fucked Up's 12-hour show at Rogan on Bowery and Bond Tuesday.



[Via Stereogum]

BOA not DOA

What bank branch glut? Esquared reports that there's a new Bank of America branch opening Monday on Canal and Broadway. Say goodbye to the vendors and makeshift stores on the northeast corner.

Falling fat cats

Wall Street: Fall of the fat cats (CNN.com)

Excerpt:

"These guys were spending more than $250 billion a year," Robert Frank said. "They bought mansions in Greenwich and Palm Beach. They bought art for $100 million a painting."
Frank, author of "Richistan," says the enormous amounts of money earned by Wall Street elite made them practically a nation unto themselves.
"They just looked at the guy with the bigger house, the nicer Ferrari, the better artwork," he said. "And it was all competitive spending."

East Village soon to exceed maximum capacity for dessert places

We've been far too curious about the fate of 159 Second Ave., the hallowed ground that was home for 27 years to the beloved A. Fontana Shoe Repair. There has been lots of activity there in recent weeks. Anyway, we started (sarcastically) speculating about the future tenant. Based on the above photo, there was one undeniable conclusion: high-end dessert place!

Well, guess what?

An unimpeachable source -- an anonymous tipster, who, for the purposes of this post, we'll call Jeremiah Moss -- passed along the following news on the location late yesterday:

I went by today and a worker told me it's going to be "a vegan ice cream shop." I saw soft-serve machines in the background. Should be open in 2-3 weeks. Could it be another Lula's Sweet Apothecary? Or competition?

Time will tell! Anyway, there's going to be an all-out dessert war in this area now (as if there wasn't one already)...FroYo vs. Vegan Ice Cream vs. TheLiteChoice vs. Chocolate By the Bald Man Who Kind of Looks like Moby vs. the M&M's we can buy at the corner bodega vs. ChikaLicious vs. Dunkin' Donuts vs. Cold Stone Creamery vs...(Meanwhile, we'll just be at Ray's.)

Oh, here's what the space looked like in August...



Let the "bald man" jokes begin!

[Jeremiah has a thoughtful post on what used to be in this space, A. Fontana Shoes.]

Lack of progress at Tompkins Square Park playground irks some parents

Per The Villager: The $1.5 million redesign for the Tompkins Square’s playground will include a water-play area with motion-detecting ground jets, a jungle gym that resembles a rock-climbing wall and parent-friendly cafe-style tables. The playground closed in August, and is expected to reopen in the spring. And some local parents are unhappy.

“We’re thinking of getting a little demonstration together,” said Susan, who withheld her last name and who was spending last Thursday afternoon watching her daughter try out a new skateboard in the park. For Susan, the construction’s progress seems to be going at snail’s pace.
“I don’t see a lot of people working there each time I pass by,” she said. Susan heard rumors that the project will take six months — and “That’s too long,” she said.

Episode 2 review of Life on Marzzzzzzz (a 10-second review)

So! Week two. Better than the first. But it already seems tired after just two episodes. Keitel's ball-busting routine is getting old. Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) has the personality of a salami. (And he really wasn't going to eat that vegetable lasagna?) When is he going to loosen up and have some fun? Why not look up his parents? Something! Will give it one more week...

Now something much more entertaining: The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain does "Life on Mars."

Things must be really bad if Wall Streeters don't even want to see some complimentary boobage

In the trash on Nassau Street near Wall Street.

A warm holiday greeting from EV Grieve

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a joyful holiday season to all!



Damn, anyway. I meant to do a better job of tracking the first signs of the December holidays. I forgot! This was at a Duane Reade yesterday. I'm sure stores have had holiday doodads up for much longer. Anyway, for me, it doesn't seem like the holidays until the trees go up at PC Richard & Son on 14th Street. Should be any day now!

Anyway, c'mon, let's get into the holiday spirit! Everyone! Even you traders!

One sign from the bailout protest

There was a "Protest the Bailout on Wall Street" uh, protest today at noon on the steps of Federal Hall. Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez brought their Independent Presidential campaign there for what they dubbed the "Jail Time, Not Bail Time" protest. I wasn't there. But! I did walk around later to see what was left behind...