EV Grieve

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Free tonight: "Permanent Vacation," Jim Jarmusch's first feature

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Seward Park Branch Library is pleased to announce the second of its 2012 Lower East Side Heritage Film Series: the Eighties...

Tuesday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m.

In this installment of our FREE monthly series we will be showing Jim Jarmusch's first feature film:

Permanent Vacation (1980, 75 min., 16mm)

Jim Jarmusch direct his first feature: 16-year-old Aloysious Christopher Parker searches for meaning as he wanders a Lower East Side landscape of blind alleys, rubble-filled lots, and abandoned buildings. Along the way he meets his schizophrenic mother, a possibly psychotic war veteran, an hysterical Spanish-speaking Ophelia, and a junkie who recounts the sad life of Charlie Parker. Starring Chris Parker, Leila Gastil and John Lurie. With music by John Lurie.

Seward Park Branch Library
192 East Broadway

There's an essay by "Low Low" author Luc Sante in the booklet that accompanies the "Stranger Than Paradise" Criterion Collection, which includes "Permanent Vacation."

An excerpt:

"Permanent Vacation" sharply brings back the physical experience of the city then, both its serenity (a cobbled street lined with 19th-Century loft buildings possibly as empty as Egyptian temples) and its squalor (tenement rooms last painted during one of the Roosevelt administrations and pungent with the indelible odor of cockroaches).

Note the seemingly absolute darkness of the nighttime scenes. Note the devastation of the streets off Avenue C, looking like war ruins. We were right on the verge of owning the place, we thought — nobody else seemed to want it.

And how was your Monday night?

... a few observations via Twitter...

What's with all the drunkards in the hood? It's only Monday, people. You're not supposed to flood the streets til Thursday. #eastvillage
— Celine Willard (@CelineNYC) June 19, 2012

What's up with the people yelling and singing on 1st Ave? #eastvillage
— Alison Backman (@alibackman) June 19, 2012

Monday, June 18, 2012

Help find this East Village resident's stolen artwork

[One of the missing paintings]

A reader asked us to share this information (pulled from the Voice classifieds)

Please help!
My car was broken into on the morning of Wednesday, June 13th and a vintage green "Amelia Earhart" suitcase was stolen!

Sadly, this suitcase was FILLED with all of my paintings that I was going to hang in a show!

I believe the suitcase was discarded on the street shortly after the theft & one by one all the paintings were taken by passersby. (The car was parked on East 12th street between A & B.)

The paintings have fotografka.com on the back.

Please, if you have seen any paintings or know of their whereabouts please contact me!
email: The_Lost_Works@yahoo.com or call 646.567.0348

I am heartbroken over their loss!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Deep in 51 Astor Place ... by Bobby Williams]

Henry Rollins: Joey Ramone's legacy is in danger (LAWeekly)

Avenue B's past as the "German Broadway" (Ephemeral New York)

Landmarks Preservation Commission postpones meeting for new hotel next to the Merchant's House (BoweryBoogie)

Donal Logue will play Merv Ferguson in CBGB biopic; Cheetah Chrome lands cameo (The Hollywood Reporter)

Making Delancey safer (The Lo-Down)

Jesus and Love at the Folsom Street East festival this past weekend (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

LES men curating monthly reading lists at Orchard Street's Lost Weekend (DNAinfo)

Nicoletta pizza porn (Gothamist)

And we spotted this 7-Eleven brandage on IHOP Way back on Thursday...

Are these dangerous intersections on the Bowery?

EVG reader Chad Marlow points out what he considers some dangerous pedestrian crossing signals on the Bowery at East Third Street and East Fourth Street... He lodged this complaint with 311:

"East-west pedestrian signals at Bowery @ E. 4th E. 3rd only provide 6 second countdown to cross 6 lane road with no center median. 1 second per lane must be an error and is dangerous. Please adjust."

It is a short signal considering ... that, for example, you have a 25-second warning crossing 14th Street at Second Avenue...

This is especially a short signal considering that the Evelyn and Louis Green Residence at Cooper Square is on the corner at East Fifth Street... and the residents here and their visitors might likely need more time crossing a busy street... Why not a 25-second countdown like at the 14th Street intersections?

Has Jane's Sweet Buns closed?

In the last few days, multiple readers passed along word that Jane's Sweet Buns on St. Mark's Place no longer appears to be in business. In early May, the sort of secret 10-seat bar called Proletariat opened in the back of the establishment at 102 St. Mark's Place.

Per a reader the other night: Went "to get some pastries and the shop wasn't open. Bartender at Proletariat said [Jane's] was closing due to poor sales."

We called the number for Jane's, but it has been temporarily disconnected. The shop was also closed during its announced hours of business this weekend. There aren't any notes about a closure on the Jane's website or Facebook page.

We emailed owner Ravi DeRossi for comment on Saturday morning to see what's officially happening with Jane's.

Meanwhile, Proletariat remains open for business.

Jane's Sweet Buns opened last July in the former De La Vega Museum space, selling a handful of desserts made with alcohol, such as the Rum Runner (a bun glazed in aged rum, Galliano liqueur and cinnamon, among other ingredients).

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] There's now a (sort of) secret beer bar behind Jane's Sweet Buns

Bakery opening on St. Mark's Place

Jane's Sweet Buns opens today at 2 on St. Mark's Place; features 'pastries inspired by cocktails'

Atlas Barber School space on the market

Jeremiah Moss first reported that the Atlas Barber School closed on Third Avenue at the end of May... As he noted, the landlord jacked up the rent to $11,000 a month — a little much for a barber shop charging $5 a haircut. (Read his post on the place and its history here.)

Meanwhile, the listing for the space is online now... the rent is $11,250 ...

Per the listing: "No Cooking or conflicting uses."

Meanwhile, WalkerMalloy also has a listing for the corner space at East Ninth Street ...currently the travel agency... the space is $13,600. Same deal: "No Cooking or conflicting uses."

Back to Jeremiah's May 30 post:

After all, Astor Place is changing — a shiny new tower is coming, and shiny new towers bring shiny new people who want all things to be shiny and new. As [Sheila Gray, director of Atlas] noted to me, Atlas and the East Village Cheese shop are the only old-school businesses left on the block — now the cheese stands alone and we have to wonder for how much longer.

'Boardwalk Empire' returns to the East Village tomorrow

You've probably seen these signs about "Boardwalk Empire" filming interior scenes around here tomorrow ... it will impact portions of 11th Street and 12th Street... and First Avenue and Second Avenue... (tow trucks arrive tonight at 10)

[Click image to enlarge]

Last July, the HBO series filmed in part at John's of 12th Street ...

[EVG reader Han Shan]

The folks at John's confirmed that "Boardwalk Empire" would again be filming there, though they weren't aware of all the details just yet ...

Meanwhile, we also saw the filming signs outside EVG favorite DeRobertis on First Avenue...

...a seemingly perfect location for the show set in the 1920s-1930s ...

We asked someone at DeRobertis about this... while she agreed that their cafe would be be a great fit for the show, "Boardwalk Empire" would not be filming there... Perhaps another time...

And a bonus photo... a hallway in the building above DeRobertis... via Dave on 7th, who points out that the walls and ceiling are all pressed tin...

Sidewalk's new-look sidewalk cafe

A bit of a sidewalk beautification project here on Avenue A at East Sixth Street... on Friday, Bobby Williams noted the arrival of some flower boxes for the outdoor space...

...and it's a good thing that Sidewalk workers bring them in at night. Have you noticed how people continue to dump the flower boxes at various restaurants, such as here at Numero 28 on Second Avenue?

Signage appears at new hotel on the Vegas strip the Bowery

Been a long time since we last looked at the incoming Wyndham Garden Hotel on the southern stretch of the Bowery (at Hester) ... Our friend Curt Hoppe sent us this photo of the new sign late last week...

BoweryBoogie has more about it here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Wyndham Garden Hotel starting to sprout on the Bowery

Last night at Nice Guy Eddie's

Nice Guy Eddie's closed for good last night after a 16-year run on Avenue A... EVG reader Rob sent a long a few photos from the evening/early morning...

...and later, at the end of the night (morning) ...

Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food" coming next here via a team led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

And how was your weekend?

A few observations via Twitter...

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Somewhere along the High Line

Photo today by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

[East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue]

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave. (Tuesday)

Mysterious plywood arrives at the Mystery Lot (Friday)

Yogurt Crazy is coming (Monday)

The big dig starts at 74-84 Third Ave. (Monday)

One of the nicer homes in the East Village finally sold after four years (Tuesday)

Live in Bret Easton Ellis' old place (Thursday)

Nice Guy Edie's closes today (Thursday)

And our post Wednesday about moving away from the East Village yielded 71 comments... including this one:

Anonymous said...
"There's a happy medium. Don't let the new crowd force legitimate concerns and lamentations to an absurd extreme."

There was a happy medium, it happened in the early 90s. If I could pick a point of reference I would point to the time when Wigstock came to Tompkins Square Park and was held there for a few years after. I think the first time was around 1993, but I could be wrong. Speaking for myself, I would agree that yeah, nobody wants to go around taking their life in their hands and watching their back every moment in a bombed out crime ridden neighborhood.

But there was a time in the EV when there was a nice mix of grit, and the people were generally geared more toward (for lack of a better way of putting it)a DIY anti-materialistic, anti-mainstream mentality and they could pursue that lifestyle without paying an astronomical rent. It wasn't cheap either, but it wasn't entirely out of reach. This is not revisionist history, this is real because I lived in this time and in this place and I saw it with my own eyes. The reason why there is so much reaction to what's happening right now is BECAUSE this doesn't necessarily exist any longer.

The neighborhood may have changed alot over the decades, but let's face it people, this is a really BIG change because it is so unlike anything that's happened before. It's not like previous eras when when white, non-ethnic people came down to plant their flag of art and creativity in the EV soil. This is about a faceless, generic white-washing that could care less about the traditions of the neighborhood. It's about a wave of people that heard it was a fun, sort of free-for-all, piss all over the place area.

The difference between then and now is that regardless of who came to the East Village in the past, what their socio-economic backgrounds were, that they were maybe bad-asses willing to hunker down in squats and live a real urban guerrilla lifestyle, or just regular people that wanted to be in a creative environment, the focus was more or less the same: art and music, and living as far away from the mainstream as possible. The reason for the change now is because for whatever reason, the young people who are attracted to city living, lived their lives up to this point with different values. Values that by all appearances seem extremely shallow and filled with entitlement. Why this happened to kids born in the 80s and early 90s is a question for the sociologists.

Personally I can say that when I was in my 20s and even now, I was interested in OLD things. I didn't dismiss them because they weren't new. The East Village and NYC used to be a place that made you feel very connected to the past and that is now vanishing. All I can say is too bad for the frat people. If they see the light later on in life they'll realized that they wasted the best years of their lives.

JUNE 13, 2012 12:59 PM

Billie Joe has a boner

Also today today in important news items... it was inevitable that someone would deface the John Varvatos/Green Day ad on the old CBGB Gallery space ...

And, sure enough, a Penistrator imitator doodled on Billie Joe Armstrong...