Sure, the Hotel Carter may be the dirtiest hotel in America, but it sure is photogenic!

Been meaning to pay a visit to the Hotel Carter on West 43rd Street in Times Square. Yesterday, Gothamist had the roundup on the Carter being named the filthiest hotel in America by the voters at TripAdvisor. Woo-hoo! You're No. 1! So what seems to be the problem(s)? Ah, the usual. Rats. Mold. Dust. Dangerous electrical outlets. Dead bodies. That kind of thing!

So why do I want to pay the Carter a visit? The photo opportunities! Just look at some of the shots I found by typing in "Hotel Carter" on Flickr...(And check out Ken Mac's post on the Carter at Greenwich Village Daily Photo.)


(Photo by fantaz)


(Photo by Bob Jagendorf)


(Photo by 24gotham)


(Photo by Strange Red)


(Photo by Jeffrey Docherty)

Anyway, how bad could it be?



Previously on EV Grieve:
Checking out the Vigilant Hotel: "Perfect for the bored with responsibilities of maintaining a traceable address"

Elk in the City

At the Hotel Edison: An appreciation

A few signs from the recession

Three shots that I took Sunday...

DeRobertis Caffe on First Avenue in the East Village...



Uh, some men's shop on...uh, Sixth Avenue near 23rd Street. I think.



Supermac on Seventh Avenue.



Not sure what happened with this photo...this would be the laser hair removal recession special...shot on Clinton Street between Houston and Stanton.



Also from last fall...a sign that Eater has noted on 14th Street near Third Avenue...the sign is still there...



Meant to mention this earlier...$5 for mac and cheese? And that's a recession special? How much does a box of mac and cheese cost at Key?

The Really Really Free Market may need a new home

For the past four years, the Really Really Free Market has held their monthly exchanges at the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery on East 10th Street. As the the Times reports, they may need to find a new home, perhaps just temporarily.

Organizers said the Really Really Free Market has never seemed more relevant than in the current economic climate. But now the future of the market, at least at St. Mark’s, is in doubt. Elizabeth Arce, 20, a member of In Our Hearts, the network of collectives and individuals that runs the market, said that a church staff member told her this month that the market would have to move.

“He said the Really Really Free Market could not be held at the church anymore,” she said.

Ms. Arce said that if she and others could not reach an agreement with the church, they would begin looking for another site for the next gathering, scheduled for the end of February.

James Benn, the church administrator, said the free market would be suspended for the time being, while the church awaited the appointment of a new priest, but was not permanently banned.

Save the date/reminder...And the Archdiocese now has half of the money to restore St. Brigid's

Meanwhile, Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church, had the following news to report:

This year will bring a lot of change to St. Brigid’s Church. We would like inform you that work is progressing. There is currently on site testing going on. We will continue to monitor the situation.

The Archdiocese has informed us on Dec 16, 2008 the second installment (5 million) was received, a total of 10 million has been received and is earmarked for the restoration of the church. The Archdiocese will also be filing a motion to to render our case moot. We will inform everyone of the outcome through the website. The case is scheduled to be heard in The Court of Appeals on February 11, 2009.

Ugh: Etherea Records is closing

Karate Boogaloo brings us the awful news this afternoon at Stupefaction: After 13 years, Etherea Records is closing shop on Avenue A next month. Expect nice savings on everything there until then.

As KB notes: "I'm sad, as this is yet another record store biting the dust. One less place to drop by. One less place to discuss music face to face with actual other human beings."

Meanwhile, could someone please hit me over the head really hard with a shovel? Thank you.

Snow job: The Penistrator fails to rear his ugly head

Given the international attention the Penistrator has received, we figured this snow fiend would strike again at the first sign of the white stuff. Like last night. As our profiler noted, "all the attention is going to his head." With that, we set out once again to catch the so-called snowffiti "artist" in action...(and by we, I mean me....)



We walked for what seemed like days, finishing the blackberry brandy that we brought to keep us warm some five hours before we actually left. And we walked....



And walked...



And walked...



Twenty minutes later, still nothing. Oh, he resisted the urge! This Penistrator is a crafty one...



Until another day, one that brings snow, football and a drink-and-drown happy hour. (Trust us, we're not doing this every snowfall.)

And if you woke up this morning to a street full of snow penii, please let us know. As our new motto goes, If you see something, like a snow penis, say something.

Previous Penistrator coverage on EV Grieve is here.

The East Village Penistrator finally gaining attention of the international community

Thanks to the good people at the River blog for reporting on this news that deserves global coverage, especially overseas. Anyway, my Italian isn't so good. So I have no idea what this post says.

Our intern ran the post through The Yahoo! Babelfish translator...and it goes something like this:
-----
To Rome on the dirty cars there is who writes "washes to me", or more varying others veraci. To New York, from some time, there was a joker who went designing make them and an other series of "obscenity" on the parked cars. After a big wave of collective curiosity, of the case the net has been taken care also pettegolezza of Tmz, that it has sguinzagliato for Manhattan its photographers. At the end the graffitaro-penologo has been pecked: it would be such Haley Joel Osment, university student and protagonist of "The Sixth Sense".

This week's sign of the apocalypse

Daniel Boulud's new beer and burger joint opening on the Bowery is tentatively titled DBGB. (New York Post, via Grub Street)

Updated: For further reading:

Boulud on Bowery #03: DBGB Shall Be the New CBGB (Eater)
It's Official: Nothing is Sacred! (Flaming Pablum)

[CBGB photo via UrbanImage]

New York's disappearing storefronts

A friend recently turned me on to the work of James and Karla Murray, photographers who split time between NYC and Miami. Last month, they released their latest book, "Store Front -- The Disappearing Face of New York." According to their site: "'Store Front' provides an irreplaceable window to the rich cultural experience of New York City as seen through its neighborhood shops. These stores have the city’s history etched in their facades. They tirelessly serve their community, sustaining a neighborhood’s diverse nature and ethnic background, in a city with an unmercifully fast pace and seemingly insatiable need for change.

Through March 29, you can see their work at the Brooklyn Historical Society's exhibition, "The Disappearing Face of Brooklyn’s Storefronts." (Via Gowanus Lounge)

Meanwhile, here's a video they did on Emily's Pork Store in Williamsburg.



Since seeing their "Store Front" work, I've started paying even more attention to the great old shops that remain in the neighborhood...and elsewhere in the city...

A good storefront

On 14th Street near Third Avenue.

Two storefronts on West 36th Street

After checking out the Holland Bar the other day, I walked a bit on West 36th Street between Ninth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. Always glad to see some good, old-fashioned businesses, storefronts that haven't been turned into a Marc Jacobs or something. Here are two examples. Neither of these stores really need to have any kind of compelling window displays. (Not sure how much of their business comes from people who just happen to be walking by..."Say, I should stop and get my sewing machine repaired!") Yet I'm glad they give it a try.

A WTF storefront

Good old Rite Aid...both the location on 14th Street near the Blarney Cove and on First Avenue at Fifth Street have the same storefront...some sort of wellness theme...where we get a good view of some yuppie's armpit at sunrise...



and some yunnie honey's butt-revealing running shorts...



It's like American Apparel as reimagined by David Zinczenko.

Two places temporarily closed for renovation/construction

First, as of last night, the Australian Homemade candy shop on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A was closed...seems as if they'd want to be open leading up to Valentine's Day...




(Hasn't been a good week for Australian places on St. Mark's Place, by the way...)

Meanwhile, over on Seventh Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue, Klimat, the Eastern European beer joint, remains closed. Haven't been here myself (a little clean and suburbany for my tastes), but a friend of EV Grieve's is bummed this place has been closed for several weeks...



At least it looks as if they'll be back in time for your Valentine's Day.

An East Ninth Street vintage shop is closing

M Sonii, the vintage-y, knicknack-y store at 220 E. Ninth St. near Third Avenue that featured local designers...


is closing...



In 2000, The Village Voice named M Sonii the best accessory store.

Life on Laura Mars

Ah, the Bowery Boys do justice today to a long-lost (unintentionally hilarious!) NYC classic...The Eyes of Laura Mars from 1978. With Faye Dunaway fresh from winning an Oscar for Network. As the Bowery Boys put it:

As such, it seems a thin but playful satire of downtown New York decadence. Manhattan looks unusually great for such a commonplace horror flick. The best set is easily Mars' studio, in one of the Chelsea warehouses piers overlooking the Hudson River, just steps from the West Side elevated highway. The most notable -- and campy scene -- erupts at Columbus Circle, at a ridiculous fashion shoot involving burning cars and models in lingerie and fur coats. Oh Columbus Circle! Were you ever so fun?

You get a taste of Hell's Kitchen in a brisk chase scene involving Tommy Lee Jones' cop character, his feathered hair flapping in the wind. But seeing Soho was more striking to me, devoid of shopfronts, mysterious flat warehouses during the day that open to become large, disco-thumping galleries at night. There are still galleries in Soho, of course, but the one in 'Laura Mars' is a big, hokey circus. (The director even condescendingly throws in a dwarf, to get the point across.)

Here's a trailer/infomercial for the film....



And those memorable, uh, lines...

Snow is in the forecast tonight, which means....

We'll be watching you, Haley Joel...or whoever the dastardly Penistrator probably really is! Our traps have been set. Oh, wait. No football tonight. Hmm.

Meanwhile, the Splash photo of Mr. Osment from the other day showed him in front of an apartment building marked 310...

That would be 310 E. 12th Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue...right in the heart of the recent trail of snowffiti.



Which means... absolutely nothing!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

That New York Giants-fan-is-inconsolable video that too many people are talking about. (YouTube via that guy in my office who told me about it)

Is there a secret rum bar on St. Mark's Place? (NY Barfly via Grub Street)

Buy the mural at Veselka (Grub Street)

More on the "Vanishing City" extravaganza (Washington Square Park)

At the Fourth Street Food Co-op (East Village Podcasts)

So long to the smell and slippery white film of fat in the Meatpacking District (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Discussion questions on E. B. White's "Here is New York": Which of White's characterizations of the city are still applicable today? Which seem out of date? (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Not even toilet paper is recession-proof (AdAge)

Whirly-Girly action (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

The South Street Seaport Music Winter Fest starts Friday (Brooklyn Vegan)

A Richard Hell Obamicon (Stupefaction)

Dating a banker? (Esquared)

At the new Alice Tully Hall (The New Yorker)

PURE SPECULATION: Maybe people are stealing pets for the reward money?

Have you noticed how many missing pets signs there are around the neighborhood? A friend suggested that, perhaps, people were stealing pets in return for a reward...Maybe? Easy money in these difficult economic times, etc. He had no proof to back this up...He was just talking, but it was a rather chilly thought.






Stealing pets is hardly a new concept. In any event, whatever the reason for the disapperance, I hope these owners find their pets soon (if they haven't already).

T-shirt for tourists proof that bad old days are back?

And are they the bad old days of the 1970s or the 1980s? On Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport.

The Holland Bar may be open as soon as tomorrow! (Though you may not recognize much)

As we reported last week, the Holland Bar is set to reopen...very soon. The Times follows up today with confirmation the old joint on Ninth Avenue may be up and running by tomorrow. Golly. The Times talks with the bar's owner, Gary Kelly:

[L]ast summer the Holland became one of those typical New York institutions: the beloved local haunt forced to shut down. According to Mr. Kelly, who has owned the bar since 1998, the landlord refused to renew the lease in the hopes that he could make more money converting the building for residential use or selling it off. But such plans apparently did not work out, and the landlord offered Mr. Kelly his old space back starting Jan. 1, albeit at a 20 percent increase in the rent. Now the Holland is scheduled to reopen its taps as soon as Wednesday.

But will we recognize the place?

Although the location will be familiar to patrons, Mr. Kelly still had to start practically from scratch in recreating the place. Since the Holland closed its doors, the bar had been destroyed, the plumbing had been removed, the floor had been ripped out.

And much of the physical record of the bar’s history that had been pasted to its walls — the photographs of customers who had died years before, the posters for shows at the dear, departed CBGB — is gone, too.

Hmm, still, I'll take it. So the Holiday is back...The Emerald Inn won't have to close...and Frankie and Johnnie's will live...

For further reading:
Holland Bar (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Brightening Light at the End of the Holland Tunnel (Lost City)