"A Personality in the East Village"

I'm interested in seeing Edgar Oliver's one-man show, “East 10th Street: Self Portrait With Empty House.” It's playing at the Axis Theater, 1 Sheridan Square, in the West Village. Here are some passages from Ben Brantley's review in the Times today:

Mr. Oliver is a poet, playwright, performance artist and actor. But above all, he is a Personality, with a capital P, a type celebrated in England as an Eccentric and in middle America as a Character. It’s not easy being a Personality in the East Village, where the willfully weird abound (or did once, anyway) and where Mr. Oliver has lived since the late 1970s. It requires an exaggerated consistency of character and style, which should seep from every pore.

In “East 10th Street,” which runs through Feb. 28 in a judiciously austere production directed by Randy Sharp, Mr. Oliver uses this sensibility to evoke his years as a tenant in an S.R.O. boarding house on Tompkins Square Park, into which he moved, fresh from Paris, in 1977, when he was 21, paying $16 a week for rent.

“East 10th Street,” which was staged in November, has developed a cult following. It’s easy to see why. Mr. Oliver depicts and embodies a bohemian, low-rent New York that scarcely exists anymore. It’s hard to imagine anyone like him, with a similar set of stories, coming out of the gentrified East Village of the early 21st century.

Let mw know if you've seen it...

Ryan's Irish Pub (temporarily) closed

Was surprised to find the always reliable Ryan's Irish Pub on Second Avenue near Ninth Street closed the other day...




However, a source told me this is just temporary, and that they're doing a little "remodeling." Still, you'd think the Ryan's folks, who also own Bull McCabe's and the Thirsty Scholar, would put a sign on the door telling what's going on now...

Nothing more festive than an opening of a new Subway

Grand opening this past weekend...



On Second Avenue near Ninth Street...at the site of the former Burritoville.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Locals will no longer have to walk a few blocks out of their way for a Subway

Fluffy taken to Pennsylvania

These fliers are all over Avenue B...click on the image for a better read...



Sad, strange story.

Earlier:



Previously on EV Grieve:
PURE SPECULATION: Maybe people are stealing pets for the reward money?

Report: Cops will be cracking down on petty crime

From today's Post:

After giving petty criminals a break, the NYPD summoned a dozen precinct commanders to Headquarters Friday to help focus efforts against aggressive beggars, squeegee men, hookers and illegal peddlers, The Post has learned.

Station-house bosses from Manhattan and The Bronx met with top brass and gave them reports on quality-of-life problems each is facing, according to sources familiar with the gathering.

The summit was called by Chief of Department Joseph Esposito after cops issued 7.1 percent fewer summonses for minor offenses in 2008 than in 2007, as The Post reported last month.

Early in the week, a unit from headquarters scouted the city looking for problem areas and taking photos. Then brass called the sitdown with precinct heads to hear from them.

They talked about petty crimes and misdemeanors that can drive the average New Yorker nuts -- street walkers, panhandlers who get in your face and homeless people who hang out at ATMs or fast-food joints.

"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

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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.