Sunday, September 16, 2012

The streaking sky


Photo by Shawn Chittle.

An EV Grieve Election 2012 update


Noted on Second Avenue.

The Bowery Bears (and Bunnies)

On Wednesday, BoweryBoogie noted the arrival of some blindfolded bunnies and bears hanging from power lines on the Lower East Side... He traced these to artist Manny Castro and electronic dance duo HeartsRevolution ...

Anyway, here's another batch from this past week on the Bowery at Great Jones...




In case you are looking to buy a pug French bulldog

You're in luck! Spotted these flyers around Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place this weekend...


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Sunset trail


Photo by Bobby Williams.

Fight on the food line


Earlier today on Avenue A outside Tompkins Square Park. Photo by Steven Hirsch. (Follow him on Instagram here.)

At the East Ninth Street Block Party

Always a pleasant neighborhood gathering here between Avenue A and First Avenue... photos by Bobby Williams...





Why we still need Big Gulps and Double Gulps

Handy outdoor urinals, of course... So thank goodness they are exempt in the big soda ban!



For further reading:
Health Board Approves Bloomberg's Soda Ban (The New York Times)

Check out J. Kathleen White's excellent peephole dioramas for 2012

Since 2005, East Village artist J. Kathleen White has created a set of peephole dioramas and displays them along the fence outside the Ninth Street Community Garden at Avenue C ... Her 2012 set went up yesterday, and Bobby Williams took a look... and make sure that you stop by to appreciate them in person...






See her 2011 work here.

Jimmy McMillan will run for NYC mayor in 2013

[EVG file photo]

Catching up on some political news here. Yesterday, the Observer reported that Jimmy McMillan announced that he will run for NYC mayor in 2013. He made his announcement at Tammany Hall on Orchard Street, where he was performing a few musical numbers.

Per the Observer:

Mr. McMillan decided to launch his mayoral campaign at the concert ... after meeting two of the women who were performing in the show at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the Lefferts Garden section of Brooklyn. Dion McKenzie and Erika Buestami, who perform as Kowabunga Tyga, said they instantly recognized Mr. McMillan.

“We met Jimmy McMillan at Dunkin’ Donuts when Jimmy was doing his thing, campaigning and the rent is too damn high,” Ms. McKenzie said pointing towards her bandmate. “She just went up to him like, ‘Hey Jimmy, What’s up.”

He will be keeping with his Rent Is Too Damn High Party line. Before tossing his hat into the mayoral race, McMillan was running a presidential campaign as a Republican. He said that he will now support President Obama.

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Shadow knows, of course



The Damned with "Shadow Of Love" circa 1985.

Opening tonight, Pouring Ribbons on Avenue B, featuring drink matrix

Back in November, we noted that an "artisanal cocktail bar" was in the works for 225 Avenue B, the upstairs space that most recently was home to White Noise and Uncle Ming's. Per Zagat, this new bar, called Pouring Ribbons, (soft) opens tonight.

The bar is by the people at Alchemy Consulting — described on its website as "a firm based on increasing the profitability of bars and restaurants around the country through innovative beverage design." New York clients include Bar Seven Five at the Andaz Wall Street

As Zagat notes about Pouring Ribbons:

Each beverage is plotted on two scales, one ranging from refreshing to spiritous, the other from comforting to adventurous. Booze hounds are sure to go for the Hagar and Helga, the most spirit forward and exciting of the bunch — it's a mix of Linine Aquavit, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao, cumin syrup and cinnamon bitters.

You can find that drink menu here.

Meanwhile, how many artisanal cocktail bars can one neighborhood possibly support?

[Photo via Zagat]

What you have to do sometimes to get back into your own locked apartment



Go to the deli on the corner, borrow that cherry-picker thing, and retrieve your keys through the open window. Starring artist-musician-all-around-folk-hero Paul Kostabi.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Tompkins Square Park yesterday. Photo by Bobby Williams]

More about the proposed East Village nightlife district (The Villager)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission hears plans for proposed hotel on East Fourth Street (Curbed)

A history of the East Village in 10 objects (Off the Grid)

New additions to Jeremiah's Dreams of the Vanishing New York website

New look for TeaNY on Rivington (BoweryBoogie)

Final hearing for SPURA next week (The Lo-Down)

Photos of the Feast of San Gennaro in recents years (The Gog Log)

... and too late for you to attend the VIP event, but you can still smell like Lady Gaga...

Noted


On East 13th Street this morning via EVG reader Jed...

Next Saturday: Tour the East Village and Lower East Side Bike Friendly Business District

[Via BikeNYC]

Via Felix Salmon, we learn about this event happening next Saturday, Sept. 22, starting at 11 a.m.

Join Transportation Alternatives' Bike Ambassadors on a bike tour of some of our favorite Bike Friendly Businesses to commemorate the launch of New York City's first Bike Friendly Business District, in Manhattan's East Village and Lower East Side. We'll ride through the East Village and Lower East Side stopping by our favorite Bike Friendly Businesses and arts destinations along the way, including Pushcart Coffee, Veselka and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The East Village and Lower East Side Bike Friendly Business District — the first of its kind — is a network of more than 150 businesses and cultural institutions dedicated to promoting safe bike riding and better bike infrastructure in their neighborhood. Free food provided, but bring your bike.

Find more details at BikeNYC.org. The group will meet at Veselka, Second Avenue at East Ninth Street.

And you're pleased with this...? Not pleased? Being part of the first Bike Friendly Business District and all.

Looking at the Church of Saint Emeric on East 13th Street

Catholic churches are coming and going these days in the East Village. Parishioners held the last mass this past Sunday at Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street. (The Villager has a nice farewell feature in this week's issue.)

The Catholic Archdiocese is selling the church property, which includes the Don Bosco Salesians rectory adjacent to the church and the church's former school on East 11th Street. No official word just yet on the new owner.

Meanwhile, renovations continue at St. Brigid's on Avenue B at East Eighth Street.

And then there the Church of Saint Emeric. As The Villager first reported in June, St. Emeric’s, built in 1950 at 740 E. 13th St. at Avenue D, will close and merge with St. Brigid's.

Per The Villager, Father Lorenzo Ato, priest in charge at St. Emeric for the past four years, will be the pastor of the new parish and has already moved into the Brigid's rectory.

Joseph Zwilling, archdiocese spokesperson, said there weren't any immediate plans for the St. Emeric’s church building or the two-story parochial school built in 1952 next door on East 12th Street and Avenue D.

In any event, I figured this was a good time to visit St. Emeric's ... located down a rather lonely stretch of East 13th Street, which dead ends at the Con Ed power plant. The church sits next to the Manhattan Pumping Station that's currently being refurbished ...



... and across the street from the Con Ed power plant...


On the morning that I walked by here, there were a handful of men huddled atop the sidewalk bridge sleeping...






... and here's a look from the East 12th Street side...



The church building itself is fairly unremarkable (I haven't been inside) and the chunk of real estate is in an unglamorous spot — surrounded by the Con Ed plant, pumping station and public housing. Not sure what would work here outside of some utilitarian purpose or nonprofit use. In other words, no dorms or condos.

But!

Things being what they are these days in Manhattan, I could see some enterprising restaurateur open an eatery and offer an East-River-to-table small plates Tasting Menu for thrill-seekers who desire a real "gritty" East Village meal (don't worry — the eel with be flown in fresh daily from Nihonbashi) ... or a developer launch a boutique hotel with Super Charged Weekend Packages for travelers who yearn what it's like to work at a power plant. Other authentic "street" touches include the housekeeping staff who push their supplies in imitation C-Town grocery carts (for sale in the gift shop for $1,695) and the bar that sells craft beers in brown paper bags.

Yeah, anyway — this is the Church of Saint Emeric

Are you missing a cat?

Bobby Williams spotted this cat in Tompkins Square Park yesterday... a stray? Someone's pet? Anyone...?


Bobby noted that someone had given the cat food and water ...



Spotted mid-block on the East Seventh Street entrance...

The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop raising money today for the Bea Arthur Residence

[File photo]

As previously reported, the Ali Forney Center will develop housing for up to 18 homeless LGBT youth at 222 E. 13th St., which will be formally named the Bea Arthur Residence.

Today, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop is raising money for Ali Forney and Bea Arthur ... (Co-owners Doug and Bryan are longtime fans of both... they even named a cone for Bea Arthur.)

So... to the Big Gay Ice Cream blog:

We are proclaiming Friday, September 14 “Golden Girls Day” at our shop. That day marks the 27th (!!!!) anniversary of the show’s premier. God, don’t you wish shoulder pads would finally come back?

Come by our shop that day if you can — we’ll be collecting money for the Bea Arthur Residence. Here's how you can give:

- Pick up a Bea Arthur cone. 100% of the proceeds from every Bea Arthur cone sold will go to Ali Fornay


Tomorrow: Block Party on East Ninth Street

From the EV Grieve inbox... no packages of tube socks here...
Annual 9th Street A-1 Block Association Block Party

(9th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A)
Saturday, September 15, 11 am – 5 pm (no rain date)

Live Music (from noon - 4 pm) featuring

* Bluesco Band
* Navivan
* Nick Palumbo & the Flipped Fedoras

Resident artists, crafts people and photographers will be showing and selling their work, and residents will be selling a la "stoop sale" — antiques, bric-a-brac, clothing, accessories, music, jewelry, etc.

Raffles for gifts, discounts or coupons from block businesses, who will also be offering their wares

Block businesses include:
* Boutiques and Antiques: Bridal Veil Falls, Cloak & Dagger, Devorado, Dorian Grey Gallery, Dusty Buttons, Enchantments, Flower Power, Grey Era Vintage, Ollie's Place, Pink Olive, Polytima, Pork Pie Hatterie, Puppy Love Kitty Kat, Reason Outpost, The Upper Rust
* Restaurants: Cigkoftem, Dirt Candy, Empanades, Exchange Alley, Good Beer, Kajitsu, Whitman's, Zucker Bakery
* Hair Salons/Barbers: Lovemore & Do, Maria Mok Salon, Neighborhood Barber