Saturday, April 16, 2011

Today in fences being painted

EV Grieve contributor samo notes that members (and friends!) of the New York Junior League are painting the fence this morning at First Park...


Friday, April 15, 2011

Spring fling

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Chances are



James White and the Blacks from "Downtown 81."

No. 25,000

Last evening, EV Grieve passed a milestone that he or she wanted to mention... Marty Wombacher left the following comment... which also turned out to be the 25,000th comment in EV Grieve's history. (And we're so pleased that this historic comment included "penis.")


And it's also an opportunity for a sincere thank you for reading and continuing to take the time to offer your opinions and anecdotes and share your thoughts and experiences... To the next 25,000 comments then.

'Hot Chicks Room' sign will now bring ruin to compost

Dave Itzkoff at the Times reports on an impromptu ceremony outside the future Upright Citizens Brigade home on Avenue A today. Amy Poehler, a star of “Parks and Recreation” and a founding member of UCB, presented the founding directors of the nonprofit group Earth Matter with that darn "Hot Chicks" sign. Per the article:

The sign will decorate a compost learning center run by Earth Matter on Governors Island. This “Hot Chicks Room” will feature a greenhouse containing chickens who, in their own way, will teach visitors about the nutrient cycle and waste-reduction practices and help create a fertile soil additive for the island.

Previously.

[Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition


Molloy: Rape trail is 'is compelling tale of two cruel, stupid officers' (Daily News)

So long Siren: Voice introduces the 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport (The Village Voice)

Where you can still get jumbo platforms in the East Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Late-night ping pong in Tompkins Square Park (Nadie Se Conoce)

A new tattoo parlor for the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Dry Dock Playground getting Domino tables (DNAinfo)

Talking Times Square porno and NYC noir with Bette Gordon (The L Magazine)

... and check out here work at the Anthology Film Archives this weekend.

And a false alarm yesterday on East Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D...

[Bobby Williams]

You've been warned

Last week, we provided photographic evidence that several monsters/creatures had been spotted nesting in the area.

It's getting worse. Our friend Goggla sends along a dispatch: "They've infiltrated Spring and Sullivan...I predict more pods will hatch as the weather gets warmer."

Indeed!


If the Electric Circus were to open today

At first, this was meant as nothing more than an appreciation of some photos (via Getty Images) of the Electric Circus from 1968 ... with the original photo captions on the first three...


"Patrons at Electric Circus, 23 St. Marks Place, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, New York City. stops for check. Girls not wearing bras are admitted free on Sundays."


"UNITED STATES - JUNE 27: Transparent plastic bra strap, virtually invisible around back, gives a topless look to formal mini at the Electric Circus at 23 St. Marks Place, New York City. (Photo by William Quinn/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)"


"Fashionable crowd mill about outside the Electric Circus 23 St. Marks Place, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, New York City."

Then I started thinking about the reaction if this very same venue would open here today... A hot club promoter (in this case, Jerry Brandt) ... celebrities... crowds from everywhere showing up on St. Mark's Place... how would the community respond? No bra night?! Sounds like some stunt Superdive would have pulled. And look at that mob on the sidewalk! Call 311! (And what would those local bloggers write!) Has the influx of bars and jackasses and woo-wooing in recent years made us intolerant of any nightlife? Or maybe just some nightlife? Or a certain type of nightlife? (I can keep going with the vague rhetorical questions!) Regardless, I would have liked to seen this concept go before today's CB3/SLA committee...

Anyway, here are several more photos from the Getty archives... the Electric Circus closed in 1971... the address now houses a Supercuts and Chipotle ... as well as $17,000 apartments...






By the way, this wasn't meant as a history of the space... plenty has been written about it, including, but not limited to:

Jack Newfield Catches the Electric Circus Opening on St. Marks (The Village Voice)

FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER: The Electric Circus (The Bowery Boys)

Streetscapes / 19-25 St. Marks Place; The Eclectic Life of a Row of East Village Houses (The Times)

Live on St. Mark's Place for only $17,000 per month! (EV Grieve)

Reminders: Record Store Day tomorrow



Support your local record stores tomorrow with, uh, Record Store Day... Still several local record stores left, of course ... Like! Norman's ... Kim's ... Good Records NYC ... Rockit Scientist ... Turntable Lab ... A-1 Records ... Other Music ... Academy Records ... Gimme Gimme ... Hospital Productions... Sounds ...

And not all of the record stores participate in Record Store Day... Check out the site for the full listing... And I have a bad feeling I'm missing an East Village record store or two...

Meanwhile, perhaps Record Store Day has become too commercial? The Daily News discusses that here.

[Updated] A scene from East Sixth Street circa 1979


Shawn Chittle sent along this photo:

Kenny Scharf, John Sex and Keith Haring
East Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue
June 1979

(The photo came to Shawn via Kenny Scharf)

And thanks to EV Grieve reader Larry Slade for bringing the photo to life ...



And here's one more color-corrected version via Worm Carnevale ...

For anyone worried about the yuppies taking over the Tompkins Square Park ping-pong table




Photographed in the Park yesterday by EV Grieve Ping Pong Correspondent Bobby Williams.

Cooper Union displays its cans

A reader walked by Cooper Union last night on the Seventh Street side and and did a double-take, so to speak... "I just had to go back and see this 20-footer hanging in the atrium."



Thank goodness this isn't hanging in the window on Avenue A and Third Street ...

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Bowery beef

A few minutes apart this evening ...

...outside DBGB...


...and Billy's...

$2,500 reward for Harry, who needs his meds


Melanie took this shot and posted at East Village Corner...

And here's another view of a Harry flyer via Bobby Williams...

What the hole in the ground at 250 Bowery will look like


The Post has the story today. The address, south of Houston, will be "a residential building with roughly 84 feet of store frontage. The 24 condo units, a mix of one- and two-bedrooms, will be on floors three through eight, and there will also be a penthouse level. The one-bedrooms will run around 850 to 900 square feet, the two-bedrooms around 1,100 to 1,200 square feet."

BoweryBoogie has been following the story all along. Catch some of his earlier posts on the project.

[H/T Curbed]

You chance to discuss bike lanes tonight


At St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery ... I hope the Post wasn't invited to cover this!

Will 35 Cooper Square get the St. Ann's treatment?


What if developer Arun Bhatia decides to placate members of the community by keeping part of the structure intact? Much like NYU did by incorporating the façade of St. Ann's into the entrance of the 12th Street dorm.

Goggla mentioned this yesterday in the comments about 35 Cooper Square: "I wonder if something similar could happen here where the façade (or some replica of it) gets 'preserved' purely for decoration."

Would this be a victory? Or is it worse to see the daily reminder of what was entombed around a soulless, glassy tower?

Or, better, 35 Cooper Square could remain, and the mystery project is built around the historic structure... similar to how the Cooper Square Hotel went up next door to the home of Hettie Jones...

[Image via Jeremiah's Vanishing NY]

[Top image via]

Also at 35 Cooper Square: A 'failure to comply' notice

We spotted this new "notice of violation and hearing" taped up to the plywood...


Per the notice:



So from this document, it appears that people can still access the building at "lower roof of property" (That's YOU, Cooper Square Hotel!), just like Runnin' Scared noted two months ago.

Plus! That ongoing issue: the roof is exposed to the elements. A hearing on the matter is set for June 1, according to the document. Just six more weeks of spring rain.

Extra Place fit for Wonder Woman

Yesterday, EV Grieve Superheroine Correspondent Bobby Williams caught part of a photo shoot in Extra Place off the Bowery for what a crew member said was a promo for "the new Wonder Woman movie."

Hmm, well, NBC has a pilot in production for the fall... Anyway, who cares! Look, tiny shorts like Lynda Carter wore!



MTA makes nice

Last Friday, we discussed the story of East Village artist (and EV Grieve commenter) VH McKenzie, who received a letter from an unpaid MTA intern asking her to stop selling her oil paintings on discarded MetroCards subway cards. (She has for sale in her Etsy shop.)

The story made the rounds, from WPIX to The Wall Street Journal.

So all this has ended well. First, as she wrote, her 18 paintings sat "barely noticed and certainly unsold for three months. Until the MTA ordered me to stop 'selling them.'"

She sold them all in less than 24 hours after the attention from the intern's letter.

As she writes on her blog ... VH received a nice email from Mark Heavey, Chief of Marketing and Advertising for the MTA, asking that she: 

...simply change the listing on Etsy to read something like “Original hand-painted art on a NY transit fare card,” and refrain from using an image of an original, unpainted MetroCard in the listing, you may continue to do what you are doing.”

Her response?

Done, Mark. Actually, I did that last week and the Intern still indicated that I should make arrangements for a licensing agreement. ... I pointed out to Mr. Heavey that I had turned the somewhat sour lemon of his unpaid intern’s  “cease and desist” letter into a rather sweet, refreshing citrus beverage.

He wrote:

I wish you continued success with your “fare card art” project… the media does love a good David vs. Goliath story ... Continue to make lemonade.

Meanwhile, she is now working on more MetroCard used subway card paintings to fulfill her requests. 

P.S.
Props to Esquared who helped get the story rolling at Nonetheless.

P.S.S.
Our friend Jen Doll also has an update on this at Runnin' Scared...