Lady Gaga in 'Pizza Face'

Thanks to the reader for this shot at ApizzA on Avenue A. (Oh, it's no 'Poker Face'...)

Mail call at former Permanent Brunch

The mail is starting to stack up outside the now-shuttered Permanent Brunch/Permanent Brunch & Burger/Steak Shoppe on First Avenue ...



Anyone have Lesly Bernard's forwarding address?

Looking at DBGB's new decorative planters

I hope that they don't leave these outside unattended all night...

Pet World closing on East Third Street

Dogs day afternoon

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Blue Glass for this shot from First Avenue...

Rat epidemic at 355 E. 10th St.

NY1 has a story today about the rat epidemic inside 355 E. 10th. St. between Avenue B and Avenue C... Per their story, tenants say:

"the rodents are in the halls, elevators, walls and ceilings all day and night.

They say some rats are even eating right through the walls.

Workers removed at least two dozen dead rats on Friday.

"It's very bad. It's so bad that certain people can't even sleep because you're terrified. I mean this lady had 24 rats in the front of her kitchen. How can you live like that?" said one tenant.

Meanwhile, I'd still like to know what's happening in that longtime empty lot next door to 355 ... the one guarded by the Astroturf-based fence...

Looking forward to NEXT Saturday in Tompkins Square Park

Save the date... will have more reminders on what promises to be a great afternoon in Tompkins Square Park next Saturday....

The SHADOW Presents: The Headless Horsemen, David Peel + The Lower East Side, Rapid Deployment Force, Sexual Suicide, BANJI and *Star Fucking Hipsters* [Surprise speakers and more bands to be announced]

To get us in the mood... some Sexual Suicide from last summer...

As the Shepard Fairey mural turns...

Thanks to a reader tip... we now know the plywood peepee has been partially covered with new art here on Houston and The Bowery...





Here's a shot of the new art going up via *niCOle* on Flickr...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Shepard Fairey plywood penis getting painted over

The street has a message for Shepard Fairey

World's largest Duane Reade now open on Union Square

Well, I'm not sure if it is the world's largest... but this store is huge. Anyway, the Duane Reade is now open next to the Nordstrom Rack in the old Virgin space...



...check out the big bank of fancy video monitors on the right too...



They opened yesterday...



...and are advertising "breakfast, lunch and dinner" in an attempt to nab the masses going to Whole Foods... Oh fresh baked goods!



I would have stayed longer, but in five minutes, three different super-duper-friendly Duane Reade employees asked me if I needed help finding anything...
Yes! The exit!

Saturday afternoon at Zum Schneider without the World Cup

OK, so it was also early afternoon and hot ... not to mention a summer Saturday... was more crowded later, of course...

Anyway, I had been used to seeing this the last month on weekend mornings ...

Noted

Spotted along Avenue B.

It's another Saturday night and...

The street has a message for Shepard Fairey

Previously on EV Grieve:
Shepard Fairey plywood penis getting painted over

You'll need to find somewhere else to stand in line: Prune is closed for brunch this weekend!

Anyway, never been...given the lines out here weekend mornings, must be good or...?

This morning on Avenue B

Noted

From Page Six today:

Now we know what Mayor Bloomberg and Diana Taylor have in common -- they were both party animals. In a speech yesterday at Dartmouth, Taylor's alma mater, Bloomberg said, "I remember having nothing but fun in college." The Post's Jennifer Fermino reports Bloomberg also said Taylor told him she skied constantly while attending the New Hampshire university, but he thinks she "drank a lot [and] probably smoked a lot." Bloomberg, who went to John Hopkins, confessed to a dismal academic record: "If you think I don't have 'Animal House' on my iPad, you are wrong," he said.

This disarming man: Larry David on Fourth Avenue

Filming "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on Fourth Avenue and 12th Street a little bit ago... thanks to EV Grieve reader Shaps for the shot.

Oh yes it is

Cathedral preservation meeting ends in deadlock; mediator next

Jill at Blah Blog Blah attended last night's CB3 meeting regarding the preservation of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr on East Second Street. In a comment, she reported:

[T]he two sides are really at odds, which is so strange because ultimately they want the same thing — to preserve the church they love.

The meeting ended with both sides agreeing to go to a mediator to try to work it out.

Apparently there is a group that helps with financing and all the red tape that the church is worried about. But the anger seemed to go beyond that. What I got from the speeches was that the church members feel like they felt like they are being invaded by strangers who want to proclaim landmark status on the building without engaging the occupants of the building. Like their opinion on the matter was an afterthought.

However, if this fight has been going on since before the rezoning (which is why they say they can't add an addition even if they want to), then the 8-story addition was probably a real threat, and the landmark status was meant to stop them, so engaging them wouldn't have made much sense then, as it was a strategy to stop them from proceeding with their plan.

I wonder if it is possible to could get landmark status in spite of what the church members want. It seems to me that if the EVCC et al are worried that the church, or their future congregants will try to change the building in any way (8 story addition not withstanding) then they are exactly who landmark status is meant to protect the building from.

Patrick Hedlund has more on the story at DNAinfo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking for support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral

[Cathedral image courtesy of Barry Munger]

Tuli Kupferberg in Tompkins Square Park, 1990

As you know, Tuli Kupferberg died on Monday... John Penley shared some photos of Tuli speaking at the Fourth Annual Squatters' May Day in Tompkins Square Park from 1990...




(Photos via Flickr)