"Room service!"

The Times has a piece on how hoteliers often turn to movies for design ideas.

For his largest Manhattan property — the Bowery Hotel, in the East Village — Mr. MacPherson turned to an even more surprising source: Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980), a horror film that takes place in the Overlook, a fictional hotel in the Rocky Mountains. At the Bowery, “There’s a bit of the feeling of the Overlook — hopefully without the creepiness,” he said. “The idea is to create something that is old and grand and hopefully slightly bigger and more storied than its guests and owners.”

Mr. MacPherson relied on another Kubrick film, “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), when he chose elements for the Bowery’s bellman uniforms, which evoke the film’s violent hooligans.

Though the literal associations with the film might elude visitors, they will probably know that they are someplace visually distinctive, Mr. MacPherson said. “It’s very much as if you’re building a set and everyone becomes a character in the film you’re making there,” he said.

More on the Hotel Carter

(Photo by Jeffrey Docherty)

A few weeks back I did that post on the Hotel Carter being named the dirtiest hotel in America by TripAdvisor. This past Wednesday, Curbed had the goods on blogger Mike Barish, who spent a few hours there to see how bad it really is. He filed this must-read report:

So, is the Hotel Carter the dirtiest hotel in the United States? Not from what I could see. It's unkempt. It needs major renovations including new paint, carpeting, and lighting in both the rooms and the hallways. The bathroom tiles need to be completely replaced along with the vents. But overall, it's just not that disgusting.

However, it is the single most depressing hotel I have ever been in. In fact, it may be the bleakest place I have ever been. Period. The whole environment is joyless. The wan lighting wears on you after a while. It just makes you sad. The uninterrupted white walls offer no stimuli to keep your mind focused on anything other than the sadness of the room. If there was a sequel to The Shining about a hotel that made you despondent instead of insane, it would be filmed at the Hotel Carter.

Which brings me to today. A press release came through the transom from UrbanMaidGreen, an eco-friendly cleaning service on Union Square. They're offering "a cleaning to any couple spending their Valentine's Day in the infamous Hotel Carter." And. "We will send our staff to clean your room for free on Valentine's Day, to help get you out of the doghouse from your significant other."

Well, OK. Unlikely, but. Anyway, as Barish wrote, no guests are allowed at the Carter. Which means, presumably, no outside cleaning crews. Or hookers.

Graffiti watch

Earlier this week, CityRag had an appreciation of some NYC graffiti...with links to their older posts on graffiti around the city, such as in the East Village and on the Bowery...and LES.

For your Friday the 13th: The Freaks Come out at Night

All the way from Brooklyn.

Recognize anyone at the 2:00 mark?

Frivolous Friday week in review: "Be a dear and bring Nana her epsom salts"

What the hell. Former East Village resident Madonna appears in a 1,298-page spread in the March W with her boyfriend Jesus, who has his name tattooed on his back. The "Be a dear" line comes from a Goldenfiddle commenter upon seeing the photo spread of the 50-year-old Madonna and 22-year-old Jesus.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Mr. Andre goes digital on Cooper Square (The Wooster Collective)

Anarchy on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place? (amNY.com)

Sign fun at Ray's (Slum Goddess)

The old Jefferson Market ready for action (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

DodgeBox on Delancey (BoweryBoogie)

Cheyenne now and then (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

"Enter into a place caught in a time warp:" A visit to Sam's Restaurant on Court Street (Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog via Gowanus Lounge)

Update on the Third Avenue tumor (A Fine Blog via Curbed...previously on EV Grieve)

Lehigh graduate, who's now a real-estate agent, offered advice to Lehigh students thinking of moving to New York: "Renting in New York City is a little bit different than renting from friends you knew in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania," he said. "The entire process from one to ten is definitely quite different from renting anywhere else in the United States." (The Brown and White)

At the Jamaican Dutchy (Reggae Music...hat tip, Karate Boogaloo)

Arm of New York

Let me be honest here. Just for a moment. I found this shot on my camera awhile ago. I don't remember taking the picture. I don't remember who the arm belongs to. I just know that I really like the tattoo. That is all.

The Post changes the back page headline

One of those unfortunate horrible combinations of front and back-page headlines...a late-evening tragedy bumps the original Page 1 story...the back page is already set...everything happening so quickly....The Late City Final is here....



And their online version...

Apartment ads of the week

(Uh, virgin apartment? I know what they mean, but...)



(Yes, I'm 14 years old...)

People really seem to like the new Custo Barcelona ad campaign!

Spotted at 70th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Because nothing says "I love you honey" this Valentine's Day more than a Carmen Electra stripper's pole

At Ricky's, Third Avenue near 14th Street.

Kiss me you fools

null - Watch more free videos

Happy Valentine's Day! A day early. (And if anyone can explain this to me...)

Happy Friday the 13th

Given the date and the new Friday the 13th movie in theaters today...here's a replay from a post I did last June 13:


Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is, of course, the most realistic film ever made about New York City. As the review on AllMovie.com notes, "Screenwriter Paul Schrader and director Martin Scorsese place this isolated, potentially volatile man in New York City, depicted as a grimly stylized hell on Earth, where noise, filth, directionless rage, and dirty sex (both morally and literally) surround him at all turns. When Jason attempts to transform himself into an avenging angel who will "wash some of the real scum off the street," his murder spree follows a terrible and inevitable logic: he is a bomb built to explode, like the proverbial machete which, when produced in the first act, must go off in the third."

[Hey...wait a minute here! C'mon, it has been a long week...In all seriousness, there are some unintentionally hilarious moments in Part 8...You get the idea just be watching the opening...]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

The "complex legacy" of Antonio Pagan (The Villager)

Alex pulls out the rock ephemera (Flaming Pablum)

And Karate Boogaloo plays at Danceteria circa 1986 (Stupefaction)

Speaking of rock ephemera, I found a new site in which the author posts ticket stubs to different concerts that he has seen (Stubs and Stories)

NYC imports its sewer grills from India (Hunter-Gatherer, who must have lost his class ring in here!)

Pee Pee Phone update! (Slum Goddess)

Day-o officially abandoned (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Ken has his eye on old Village haunts (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

More trouble at The Box (Gothamist)

Delancey street-saw fun (BoweryBoogie)

NYU's next victim ready for its destruction (Curbed)

A-Rod update (Esquared)

Another restaurant falls?: Looking at 110 John St.

From the looks of it, One Ten Bar & Grill at 110 John Street in the Financial District has closed...their signage is gone from out front...



but their flag still flies.

Thanks to some Internet haters, a nice story has an unhappy ending

There's a humdinger of a City Room post from yesterday....that resulted in one of the world's greatest blog responses.

Back story! Yesterday, City Room reported on a young Ivy League graduate who lost her class ring down a grate on 42nd Street. She wrote about the great lengths that some helpful folks from the MTA and Con Ed went to in order to help her retrieve the ring. She posted on this slice-of-life from the city on her blog.

Of course, this brought out some haters. While some readers enjoyed this one-of-millions-of-stories-that-unfold-here-each-day tale....others....didn't. From the comments:

First, I can’t believe you reported this story about this absolutely absurd space cadet who cost the city, literally, several thousands of dollars because she couldn’t get it together, after several years of having a too-large ring, to have it resized.

Second, and then you report the entire ridicu-blog. She sounds more like a high school kid.

Third, I find it hard to believe she graduated from Penn. Just doesn’t fit the known facts as we see them here.

Heartwarming this story was not. She needs to be reprimanded by a grown-up.

And:

No kidding. How hard is it for this ditz to have her ring re-sized?

Maybe she should go back to Pennsylvania. I hope someone in the Con Edison accounts billing department sends her an invoice for her stupidity.

And:

As a New Yorker, an Asian American and an Ivy Leaguer (Columbia University), my opinion is that Jean Hsu is definitely a pain in the butt. Unfortunately, NYC does continue to attract absolutely clueless individuals like her.

Meanwhile, the young woman with the class ring is upset...and the episode reminds her why she should "NEVER BLOG AGAIN."

In a post on her Essential Luxuries blog today, she writes:

But how is my uplifting story TWISTED by the cynical and narrow-minded people of the heinous Internet!!?! I am some stupid moron ditz who was practically asking for my ring to fall in a grate just so I could see how many people would be willing to come running to my beck and call. Wasting both time and money. WRONG, FOLKS.

She goes on to chastise the Times and Sam Roberts, who wrote the post:

Can I just first mention that for a reporter and editor of the New York Times, he wrote a completely disappointing and pointless blog. I know that my own blog is pretty pointless at times, but I also don't often think my writing or opinion is worthy of being published in the New York Times. And I write it to humor my friends who GET ME. And my pointlessness. But Mr. Roberts could DEFINITELY have done a better job in getting the ACTUAL POINT ACROSS about my story. Or at least formulating his own opinion about the situation.

Anyway, if you're interested, she sets the record straight today about what happened, corrects the Times and has words for each of the haters (like the one "ridicu-NAZI") who said horrible things about her.

Her last paragraph:

Before I depart, I wanted to take a moment to thank all my friends for being supportive, enjoying the story like they were supposed to, and ensuring me that all aforementioned haters have no lives and will be probably be really busy calling into WCBS tomorrow while listening to my radio interview. HI HATERS.

LES survey: "Small businesses are constantly facing the possibility of rent increases or eviction"

This week's issue of The Villager reports on the results of the Good Old Lower East Side survey titled, “No Go for Local Business: The Decline of the Lower East Side’s Small Business Identity.”

It's about as grim as you'd expect:

The survey found that small businesses are constantly facing the possibility of rent increases or eviction. Almost half of small business owners reported that their overhead costs were rising. Nearly one-third identified rising commercial property rents as their “greatest challenge,” and three-fourths said that their profits are not growing at a sustainable rate compared to the substantial increase in the cost of doing business on the Lower East Side.

Ninety-five percent of small business owners surveyed rent their store space, and nearly half of them hold leases of five years or less.

Redevelopment and gentrification of the Lower East Side were cited by 46 percent of business owners as directly affecting their businesses.

You had me at "My name is Menachem"

Someone -- presumably Menachem himself? -- put copies of this photocopied note around apartment buildings in the East Village last night.




I'm sold!

A few more signs from the recession

At the already reasonably priced La Isla Restaurant on 14th Street near Avenue B.





At Life Cafe, 10th Street and Avenue B. (If this wasn't so blurry, you could easily spot the "weekly recession specials" in the upper right-hand corner.)



Flier for a dog-washing shop on East Ninth Street.



Signs from around the neighborhood.




Near Wall Street.



On John Street in the Financial District.



Previously on EV Grieve:
A few signs from the recession

Locals will no longer have to walk a few blocks out of their way for a Subway

As Jeremiah reported a few weeks back, a Subway was taking over the former Burritoville space on Second Avenue near Ninth Street...the signs are going as we speak. Or type. Or something.




Domination not yet complete!