Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village! The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village! The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village!

On Monday, May 24. Thanks for the heads up so that I have time to make more of these!




We hear that the storylines will include... Gutsy Smurf walking into Nevada Smith's on Day 1 of the World Cup and asking if they'll turn on the replay of the previous evening's Mets game... Smurfette getting drunk and talking louder and faster whenever she steps outside Heathers for a cigarette break ... and Grouchy Smurf starting a blog...


Previously on EV Grieve:
A lot of fuss to watch Neil Patrick Harris exit a cab for 10 seconds

Exclusive: The Smurfs show their immature side while filming in the East Village

Exclusive first look at "The Smurfs Movie" filming today in the East Village

Day 3 of the Ukrainian Festival






Saturday, May 15, 2010

Paul Richard puts up a larger sign on Shepard Fairey's mural

On Monday, we posted a video of Paul Richard hanging a sign on Shepard Fairey's Bowery/Houston mural... the sign was quickly removed...

And this past week Paul Richard put up another, larger sign, as you'll see here...



That, too, has been removed...

Historic bombing on the Shepard Fairey mural

Epic.







Jeremiah has the history of the wall here ... he also posted the first reports of the mural being defaced back in April...

Ukrainian Festival is under way

As of yesterday... and today and tomorrow...





Before the Mothership

I took this photo prior to the Ukrainian Festival in 2008...



...before the Mothership was completed.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Hey! Baby



The Gories.

(Updated) Avenue A, 9:13 p.m., May 8



The discussion continues on this post.... Thank you for all the comments... I appreciate the spirited debate.... There are many noteworthy comments... Here's one from Goggla...

I've been thinking about this issue as it's obviously touched a nerve. Aside from the obvious problems cited above, I think this photo is upsetting because it brings to life the selfish attitude that permeates our culture of late. The over-consuming, reckless-spending, live now and screw the consequences behavior that undermined our economy is personified in this picture. This behavior is not just confined to weekend binges in the EV - when you believe it's ok to go into a neighborhood and puke on doorsteps and piss in planters, what prevents you from carrying this general attitude towards the world on a daily basis? It's not my stoop, so I can throw my trash here; it's not my pension fund, so I'll spend the money now and they can worry about it later. I find it hard to believe that a person (or group of people) can behave like animals only two nights a week and be decent, courteous human beings the other five. What we see here on the street corner is a self-gratifying, irresponsible, spoiled and unempathetic picture of a larger social problem.

Busy night outside the Verizon building: The tags are back

About six weeks ago, workers painted over all the tags on 13th Street side of the Verizon building...



However! Thanks to EV Grieve reader evilnyc for these shots of some epic tagging last night...







Previously on EV Grieve:
First tag reappears on the Verizon building

Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

"High-end English food" coming to Avenue A

I'm starting to take a closer look at some of Monday night's CB3/SLA liquor license items... So there's a transfer in the works at the Al Diwan space on 13th Street and Avenue A....



-- Percy's (Steelbar 180 Inc), 210-212 Ave A (trans/op) (Al Diwan)

I'm told that Percy's will serve “high-end English food” (!) ... and, allegedly, operate as a restaurant first and foremost, though they do plan to stay open until 3 or 4 a.m.

Previously on EV Grieve:
"Another noisy bar" slated for Avenue A; actually, make that several noisy bars, perhaps

There has been a lot of discussion on the post... be sure to read Jill's epic comment... that, in part, reads...

The bottom line is that a successful neighborhood, where ADULTS want to live, is about BALANCE. These busybodies would like to see DIVERSE businesses that cater to the community, not only to tourists. Places we would support on a regular basis, like butchers, fishmongers, grocery stores, shoemakers, tailors, laundromats, clothing stores, book shops and all types of small businesses that are disappearing.

On a clear day, you can see...

The other day, I spelled EV Heave from his watch over the new Cooper Union academic building from the other Cooper Union building...



I've never been up here before, so I took a moment to enjoy the view of the East Village from this vantage....










What do I get? A bomb scare!

You likely already heard about this...

As the Daily News reported:

An Oldsmobile with two gas cans in its back seat triggered a bomb scare near Union Square Thursday night - but it was just the latest false alarm in a city on edge, police said.

The NYPD sealed off Union Square around 10:15 p.m. as the bomb squad investigated the sketchy 1991 Cutlass Ciera parked outside the Con Edison headquarters on Irving Pl., near E. 14th St.

Here's some raw video via the AP (sorry about the stupid ad in the intro...)

So did you hear how it ended?

[C]ops eventually tracked down the car's owner, who had been at a concert by the British punk band the Buzzcocks, police sources said.

As it turned out, the Buzzcocks played a role in ending the alarm. Concertgoers who came streaming out of the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza said the band stopped the show to make an announcement for police.

"They stopped in the middle of the song and said, 'Does anyone have a 1991 Cutlass?'" said Shari Newman, 32.

Brooklyn Vegan has more on the story, including this photo...


Anyway, rough week for 14th Street... an awful fire... a radiation alert... and a bomb scare.

Pigs still flying on Second Avenue

Well! Here's a pleasant surprise... A few weeks back, a tipster reported that the building at 12th Street and Second Avenue would get a makeover, meaning the loss of the pigs...



However! As the work progresses, it appears that these pigs are safe...




Because you know what usually happens to pigs around here (at least on Avenue C) ...




Previously on EV Grieve:
And this little piggy got painted over

New million dollar lofts in FiDi go from sliding rules to sliding doors

Just in case you thought there wasn't enough high-end condos in the Financial District. Debuted now on Fulton Street, a few doors west of our old friend the Blarney Stone...

Anyway, meet the Compass Lofts... oh, and excuse me, it's The Compass Lofts at 42 Ann Street. Even thought I'm standing on Fulton Street. Ann runs parallel to Fulton. And probably doesn't have as much of a stigma as Fulton Street, the home of, well, nothing.



Anyway, as the sign says, the lofts, which hit the market last week, start at $2.4 million... and they provide a nice view of the Beekman ...



Here's some of the listing:

The Compass Lofts is a landmarked boutique residential loft building in the heart of FiDi offering seven extraordinary homes that perfectly fuse 19th century distinction with 21st century luxury. Every aspect of the architectural restoration epitomizes the developer’s reverence for the building’s role in history as a symbol of precision and design integrity.

The Compass Lofts offers a choice of six gracious full-floor lofts and one newly added rooftop penthouse duplex. All offer grand living spaces that boast oversized windows, fireplaces and high vaulted-barrel ceilings that set the stage for dramatic entertaining. The loft layout bedroom area and spa-like baths provide for a quiet retreat. The open custom kitchen includes RAK Ceramics marbleized polished porcelain counters with premium Liebherr and Viking energy-efficient kitchen appliances. The penthouse duplex is flanked by spacious north- and south-facing terraces plus a private rooftop deck.





And a little history on the building:

It was built in 1892 and landmarked 113 years later. Now the former factory at 127 Fulton Street is on the brink of becoming one of the finest, best-restored residential buildings in the Financial District. The 10-story Keuffel & Esser building was named for the family-run company that built it. Famous among engineers who relied on its products, “K&E” was the brand of the early 20th century for all sorts of drafting materials and instruments — T squares, compasses, measuring tapes, leveling rods, surveying equipment, and even furniture. It was the first American company to manufacture slide rules, and its success helped make Lower Manhattan a commercial capital in the days when industry rivaled finance downtown




Here's more on the history of the company. And if you want to know more about the Compass Lofts, there's an open house on Sunday...

Reminders this weekend: The Saint George Annual Ukrainian Festival



All this weekend on Seventh Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...



Last year, we had performers on stage!



And in the crowd!



Previously.

Ambulance chasers

On the rolldown gate at the fire-ravaged Stuyvesant Grocery last evening...



... one of the ubiquitous locksmith handouts...