9:04 a.m., Avenue A, Dec. 4

At the World Famous Pee Phone©.

Sato is missing

Flyer spotted on 13th Street near Avenue A.

Just another photo of a man walking around with a cat perched on his head

This amazing — but true! — photo taken on Broadway near Waverly comes courtesy of James Maher. (Reprinted with permission from James Maher Photographer.)

He's at the 10... the 20...the 30... the bushes... the fence... Touchdown!

Unfortunately, the play was called back for holding. Tompkins Square Park yesterday afternoon.

Giant computer truck on Avenue A

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Bobby Williams for these shots earlier this afternoon on Avenue A near Seventh Street...





..teaching today's youth how to use large van-sized computers to watch online porn... or not...

Stay free

The Clash, Capitol Theater - Passaic, New Jersey - March 1980.

Holiday Fair at the Neighborhood School (plus, pix of cute kids!)

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Neighborhood School’s Holiday Fair:
A FUN FAIR FOR A GREAT CAUSE!

The Neighborhood School’s beloved Holiday Fair is back! On Sunday, December 5, from 11 am to 5 pm, come out to support a local public school and have a blast. There’ll be carnival games, arts & crafts, face-painting, print-making, henna and temporary tattooing, a huge kid-built maze (made of deconstructed cardboard boxes — the Avenue A equivalent of a corn maze), a raffle and great food from neighborhood vendors including Ciao for Now, Solo Pizza and Mudspot.

And of course there’s the silent auction. A mere sampling of items up for bids this year: Gift certificates to terrific local shops, salons, spas, yoga studios and gyms; passes to the Landmark Sunshine; museum memberships; theater subscriptions; Knicks tickets; Doyle & Doyle jewelry; family portraits by professional artists and photographers; meals at fave neighborhood spots like Mama’s Food Shop, Esperanto, Il Buco, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Café Mogador, Caracas Arepa Bar, Balthazar and many more! Bid online or in person. Neighborhood School dad and EV institution Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba and writer Zoe Hansen will host a live auction at 3pm. Bidding closes at 4pm.

Admission to the fair is free and open to the public. Wondering what a progressive public school in the East Village is like? Come check us out! This is a great (and cheap) way to have fun indoors with your kids on a chilly winter’s day; you can have a nosh and shop for some great items while your kids run around playing and art-making with their friends. Proceeds from the fair support the Neighborhood School PTA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that pays for the school’s art and music education, field trips, classroom supplies, special programs and teacher support. The Neighborhood School is at 121 East 3rd Street between First Avenue and Avenue A

And a school parent passed along photos of some of the students... most of them were taken by the kids, some in an afterschool photography class (taught by a parent, since there is no more funding for afterschool programs) and some in school as part of the curriculum.

Dorian Gray opening, hiring

Here at the former Cannonau (previously Assenzio) space on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... new eatery-tavern combo coming soon. CB3 approved this transfer in September.

Some place that the Wall Street Journal should discover

And I wish that today's Wall Street Journal piece on the new hotbed of action on East Third Street and Avenue C included a mention of the 5C Cultural Center and Cafe ... they do some great programs here... and they really need support... Here's their upcoming schedule. Maybe the Journal could also dig into the nasty landlord dispute here.

The Elephant is closing, and selling off its wares today

As you can see, the Elephant, the troubled Thai eatery on East First Street, has closed. You can read its history here, including an interview with the manager.

We don't really know either

Weather balloon crashed into the new Edi & the Wolf, the Austrian Wine Tavern!, here on Avenue C near Seventh Street?

Newspaper discovers East Third Street

The Wall Street Journal checks in today with a piece titled "New Crowd Descends on East Third Street."

Let's jump into it!:

A once-seedy slice of the East Village is turning into a new night-life Mecca, drawing crowds of late-night revelers to increasingly trendy nooks.

The stretch along East Third Street between Avenues A and D has long appealed to culinary and night-life entrepreneurs. Now, the area is teeming with newly opened bars and restaurants, more of which are venturing farther east toward the grittier Avenue D.

Surely there are repercussions from this new-found popularity?

"The rents have gone way, way up, so that the people who made this community vibrant in the first place can't afford to live here," said Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, who lives on East Third Street.

Still, it's good that Nuyorican Poets Café is doing well. But there's always a but.

Despite those signs of success, some ponder the impact of the changing demographics on the neighborhood.

"It's a weird vibe when people come here for events who have no context of the economics or politics of the Lower East Side—they just come for events." said Steve Cannon, a poet, playwright, novelist and retired professor at City University of New York, who founded A Gathering of Tribes in 1990.

Next week... East Fourth Street!

[Image via The Wall Street Journal]

"Ice pick bandit" menacing Stuy Town

Stuy Town Lux Living has more details.

A mighty thanks

Yikes... and many thanks... I'm honored to be part of this group ... Village Voice Web Awards: The Finalists for Best Neighborhood Blog Are...

Upright Citizens Brigade making progress on East Village outpost

Grub Street first reported that the Upright Citizens Brigade would be opening an East Village outpost back in January 2009. Plans called for the troupe to open at the former Pioneer Theater, which closed two years ago on Avenue A and Third Street. Work started on the space in July 2009.... a time which brought us an epic comment thread about cargo shorts.

Anyway, it seems as if work has picked up again here of late...



Alex Sidtis, managing director of the UCB’s current location in Chelsea, told me in an e-mail that "we are making progress on the space, it will be open in 2011." Stayed tuned for more details.... By the way, CB3 did approve a liquor license for this space in January 2009.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Work on Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre begins at former Two Boots space

More on the future of Polonia

On Monday, we posted an interview 22-year-old Paul Jurczyk, who bought Polonia from his parents. With a new chef, Jurczyk has been modernizing the traditional Polish eatery on First Avenue...

The post elicited many negative comments from readers... Jurczyk followed up with a comment of his own that I thought was worth making a separate post...

Hi everyone, I feel like most of you have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I have no plans, whatsoever, of trying to scare off Polonia's long time patrons. I have become very well acquainted with many of them and would be sad to see them not come back. I have been frequenting Polonia since before I could walk. Many of these patrons have watched me grow up.

Everyone seems to be focusing on my "hoping that the old customers which really enjoy to nag and complain will find somewhere more suitable to their liking" comment. I did not mean to say that the older customers are naggers and would rather not have any of the older customers come in anymore. What I meant was that I have some customers (not all or even majority) which have been coming to Polonia for decades and prefer it the way it was before and make a point to tell not only myself but all my servers how much they dislike the changes.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you do not like what I am doing that is fine — I do like the changes that I am making and most of my customers also like the changes. What doesn't make sense to me is why these patrons keep coming back and keep complaining. I won't be changing Polonia back to a diner. If you enjoy eating at diners (which I don't mind once in a while) then go eat at a diner, but please don't come in and tell me that you rather have Polonia as a diner. Its frustrating to have to listen to these complaints and frankly I find them to be a bit rude. I promise I am not changing things around just to annoy the long time customers.

Also, I in no way meant to criticize the original owners, my parents. What they did was great. They came here without a penny and created a business that was able to put my sisters and me through school. I know more than any of you how much time, work and hardships it took my parents to do what they did. My father worked seven days a week for fifteen years — I barely saw him. They did all this for my sisters and me and believe me, I appreciate all of it.

I am trying to make sure that Polonia stays afloat and doesn't disappear entirely like the many of the local spots have. Whether you like the changes or not depends on your taste and each person is allowed their own opinion. Hopefully you can all stay a bit open minded — maybe you'll find that you like Polonia better now than before.

13th and B, 71 years apart

Well, thanks to Pinhead, we've been spending more and more time at the NYPL Digital Library site...

So, here's a photo of Avenue B at 13th Street looking to the northeast from March 1939....



...and close enough from today... just the ConEd stacks let you know that you're looking at the same corner...



Speaking of Pinhead... here's a nice now and then via EV Transitions at First Avenue and St. Mark's Place... Alex has one too at 14th Street and Irving Place...

Rite Aid sets the bar for Dec. 25

On 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Big Daddy on Second Street

Hanukkah In NYU Dorms

From an article on the NYU Local titled "Eight Crazy Nights: Doing Hanukkah In The Dorms." (And where did they get all the Four Loco for the photoshoot?)