The East Village of Nelson Sullivan

The following post was written by EV Grieve contributor Shawn Chittle:

Long before Twitter, Facebook, cell phones and cell phone cameras — in 1980s New York — there was Nelson Sullivan. He pointed a bulky 8mm video camera with a wide fisheye lens at himself and filmed everything. As the first video "lifecaster" he was years ahead of his time. Not a narcissist by my definition, but someone who wanted to document the culture that he clearly realized was something special. I have a bunch of his stuff. Sadly, he died in 1989 of a heart attack.

This clip below was just released yesterday — destined to become a classic as Avenue A, East 6th and Avenue B are captured in all their grimy glory. In this video, he tries to get a table at (a yellow painted) Sidewalk Cafe, but "all the freaks" have the tables. Instead he improvises and drops in on his friend who lives on East 6th Street and Avenue B. They all head back to find friends and an empty table at Sidewalk where the video fades out.

Waiting for a Table at an East Village Sidewalk cafe



Previously on YouTube. (Find more of Nelson's work on YouTube here.)

A Trip to Avenue A in NYC



You can read more about Nelson and his role documenting his surroundings during the 1980s here. He died of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.

On keeping 'street art safely pristine'

Nice piece in Artinfo about the ongoing drama with the Kenny Scharf mural on Houston and the Bowery. (Read the article here.)

The article, written by Emma Allen, focuses on the surveillance cameras and alleged 24/7 mural guard put in place by the wall's owner, Tony Goldman and his Goldman Properties ... to the article:

"There's no guard there now," countered Tony Goldman's prickly personal assistant, when asked if Goldman Properties had hired someone to protect the work. To which Goldman himself added in an email: "We had a guard there while the paint was drying," after Scharf touched it up. "There were many people in the street and we did not want the new paint damaged. The cameras remain."

And!

"While the guard may be gone, larger questions of whose job it is (if it is anyone's) to keep street art safely pristine persist. Beginning in 2008, the works created for the East Houston space — collaborations between Goldman and galleries around the city, from Deitch Projects to The Hole, to Kasmin — have been executed by artists whose 'street art' sells in galleries and at auction for thousands of dollars. And while it seems logical to try to protect such valuable, and often beautiful, artworks from the destructive impulses of ruffians, the Houston Street wall once in fact was the uncontested terrain of those who made art outside of, and often in opposition to, the art establishment."

And Billy Leroy has the best line, which ends the piece: " ... it's funny, five years ago no one gave a shit about the wall, and now it's become the epicenter of the art world."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 24/7 security guards now on duty at the Bowery-Houston mural

35 Cooper Square: Ownership and plans

Roland Li at Real Estate Weekly has the latest details on the future of 35 Cooper Square. Highlights from his article:

• The current owner of 35 Cooper is the Arun Bhatia Development Organization, which has built dorms for the New School and seven condo towers, most recently 139 Wooster Street, and an unnamed partner

Rooftop at 139 Wooster

• They haven't decided whether to demolish the building
• They want an "as of right, mixed-use" building, but haven't decided on specifics
• The entire lot has a buildable up to 28,998 square feet
• More details will be provided in "three or four weeks"

Meanwhile, remember that you can help by signing the online petition, which you can find here.

[35 Cooper art via]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Doom and doomer: More of Cooper Square primed for development

Cooper 35 Asian Pub part of development deal on Cooper Square

Cooper 35 Asian Pub putting up a fight before being torn down

Mercadito Cantina now has a goodbye sign up

Well, it's not exactly teary, but it is a sign. Perhaps it will make this neighbor happy.

[Thanks for @volt4ire for the photo!]

Previously on EV Grieve:
About Mercadito Cantina closing: 'Open letter to EV Grieve and CB3'

Reader: Lack of a goodbye note makes Mercadito Cantina 'a bad neighbor'

UGH: DOH shutters the beloved Donohue's Steak House

Saw this link via Jeremiah's yesterday... the DOH has shuttered EV Grieve favorite Donohue's Steak House on Lexington near 64th Street ... And it's not real pretty:

I'm hopeful that they can get all this cleaned up and reopen soon...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The timeless appeal of Donohue's Steak House

People who are a month late for MulchFest

We had the official MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park (and elsewhere!) back on Jan. 8 ... Perhaps there's another one coming up? (I didn't see it listed anywhere...)

Regardless, EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams came across new piles of dead trees in the Park yesterday...

Seems to be better than tossing the trees on the banks of snow and trash lining some sidewalks...

Noted

UFA President Steve Cassidy responding to Mayor Bloomberg's aim to cut staff at 60 of the city's busiest engine companies from five to four firefighters per truck to save $30 million a year in overtime.

"He also said we should line up for hot chocolate in Central Park after the blizzard on Dec. 27 when he flew back from Bermuda. This is somebody who is a little out of touch with New Yorkers."

(NYPost)

MTA preps for tomorrow's ice storm by having its buses break down today

Earlier this afternoon on Avenue A between Sixth Street and Fifth Street. Photos via EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams.

A truism about drinky winks

At the Blarney Cove on 14th Street.

A victory for chocolate libraries everywhere!

From Fork in the Road:

Remember that debacle over the Chocolate Library, the East Village chocolate shop whose owner was forced to change its name to Chocolate 101 after the education department told him the law forbade the use of the word "library" in business names? In a victory for the owner, Byron Bennett, he's now allowed to call his place a library.

Via Diner's Journal.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Chocolate Library ready for checkout

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Saving the old Indian trail around Astor Place (Curbed)

The New York of Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan" (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Pulino’s among the NYC eateries where a reservation doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be seated anytime soon (NYPost)

A new, micro-budgeted film festival for the LES (The Lo-Down)

Another hookah bar for the LES (BoweryBoogie)

Looking at the CB2/SLA February docket (Eater)

Al Qaeda targeting Wall Streeg bigwigs? (Gothamist)

Benefit to pay hip hop legend Kool Herc's medical bills (DNAinfo)

And more from last night's birthday celebration for Ray... This shot is by Vivienne Gucwa. She has more shots on her Flickr page.

And is it safe to go outside yet?

["Day After Tomorrow" image via]

At Ray's, a Coke and a smile — big smiles

As mentioned, Ray has turned 78, and some friends had made some birthday-related festivities.

Which is why Gal Friday was on the scene last night with some cheesecake and candles and stuff ... Several readers were on hand, and passed along photos for our family-friendly site.

And from jdx ...

Look for more shots later at Nadie Se Conoce and Slum Goddess.

Terminated Salvation

With the new hotel in the works for 347 Bowery ... (the one Alex thinks looks as if it has a "bad case of acne"), I wanted to quickly document the previous tenant before the fabulous foodies, hotshot hoteliers and squealing scenesters arrive...

The Salvation Army's East Village Residence closed here at East Third Street in August 2008.

Jack Henry Abbott wrote a short story titled "On the Bowery" about his stay here in the summer of 1981. (I wrote about Abbott and 347 Bowery here.) Here's a snippet of Abbott's story:

I noticed a body laying stretched out on the sidewalk against a rundown building. And then another and another and another. The bodies of sleeping derelicts were scattered liberally around the sidewalks and on the stoops on buildings. It took my by surprise. My mind was blank. I finally thought: "What the hell is this?"

As the invaluable Forgotten New York writes about the Bowery and the Salvation Army:

The expressions "on the wagon" and "off the wagon" had their origins on the Bowery where Evangeline Booth (whose father founded the Salvation Army), used to send a horse-drawn wagon onto the throroughfare to pick up drunks and bring them to an Army facility where they could dry out and hopefully put their lives together.

Read more on Forgotten New York's Bowery tour here.

And it's pretty amazing that the tera cotta SA initials have held up through the years...

...much better than the Fallout Shelter sign...

And a look at who this once served...

Original caption: A group of homeless and jobless habitues of the Bowery enjoying their buttermilk, sold at a very small cost at the Salvation Army Buttermilk Bar. The bar was opened as a means of combatting the sale of "smoke" the poison liquor sold so freely and which caused the death of many of the unfortunates along the Bowery.

[Image via]

For further reading:
No salvation (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reactions to new Bowery hotel: 'It would be cheaper and more useful just to blow up the building and leave a 30-foot crater'

Reader: Lack of a goodbye note makes Mercadito Cantina 'a bad neighbor'

Not sure if I want to go here again. Ah, what the hell... So, Mercadito Cantina on Avenue B near 11th Street served its last meal as a restaurant Sunday night... And a commenter, who had chimed in on the epic Mercadito Cantina post from Jan. 17, sent along an e-mail noting that the restaurant hadn't left a goodbye note on the door for neighbors/diners as of Sunday evening or yesterday.

And this, in the estimation of the commenter/reader, "shows that they were a bad neighbor — they didn't even care enough to leave a note for any locals who patronised them."

Well, OK.

However, there is a note on their website:

Meanwhile, what's to come? This tweet may provide some idea...

Previously on EV Grieve:
About Mercadito Cantina closing: 'Open letter to EV Grieve and CB3'

Octavia's Porch now coming to your front door

This past weekend, we spotted delivery menus for the newish Octavia's Porch on Avenue B plastered on various apartments buildings on streets running between Avenue A and Avenue C... This is the "Global Jewish" restaurant co-owned by Nikki Cascone from "Top Chef" season four and her husband... (And if you didn't know she was on "Top Chef," it's on the front of the delivery menu...)

One curious note about the delivery area: Delancey to Eighth Street; the Bowery to Avenue D. So if you're living above Eighth Street and are craving, say, gefilte fish or beef and veal kreplach, then you're out of luck on a delivery.

Crown and out on 11th Street

A reader notes that Crown 2, a boutique on East 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, has closed. They were just open for about one year.

Fire scare at Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen

Firefighters were on the scene this afternoon just before 3 at Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen on St. Mark's Place... EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams happened to be on St. Mark's at the time... There were reports of a basement fire at the bakery, though — thankfully — that didn't turn out to be the case...

6:01 p.m., Houston Street, Jan. 31

A Valentine's Day gift from The New Yorker

Classic. Thanks, New Yorker!

Noted

Via CBS New York.