Manitoba's celebrating 14 years on Avenue B Sunday

More details here.

A wet and steamy day, kind of

Just two streetscenes from today... Tompkins Square Park and the Bowery... By Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[This morning on 14th and First]

Concert in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. this Sunday at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery (Off the Grid)

Large rent hike could KO Bleecker Street Records (DNAinfo)

The latest on the demoliton-redevelopment of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, a New York City landmark on the LES since 1967 (The Lo-Down)

Malai Marke opens on East Sixth Street (Zagat)

Video interview with Father Pat (GammaBlog)

Pondering the forces of the Death Star (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The origins of Ludlow Street (BoweryBoogie)

Is the city's oldest row house on the Bowery in Chinatown? (Ephemeral New York)

All the Chinese restaurants in New York look the same in movies (Scouting NY)

The South Bronx in the 1980s (Gothamist)

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Chris Riffle
Occupation: Musician, Barista
Location: The Bean, 3rd Street and 2nd Avenue
Time: 1 on Tuesday, Jan. 15

I’m from Seattle. I was born in the woods. It sounds nice for my bio because you’re supposed to put something in there that makes you unique. So yes, I was born in a cabin in the woods in one of those hippie parent home birth situations. Then, when my parents divorced when I was two, my dad had a house that he built in Leavenworth, Washington, which is over the mountains, with 10 acres and lots of woods, and there was no electricity there.

For a good four or five years I was living there with him. I moved to Seattle after college, on Capitol Hill and lived there for many years until I moved here in 2007, because my boyfriend, Tim got into Cooper Union as a painter.

I’ve always wanted to be a musician. It’s tough to describe my music style — folk, it’s soft and I play the acoustic guitar. I’ve always loved playing music, although I got distracted in Seattle by a lot of things and working full time. When I first got here, I showed up at the open mic at the Sidewalk Café and the experience was great. It took me about six months to finally get out of my shell and get out my guitar and play. I just didn’t know what to expect.

So then the host booked me a couple shows and I was playing there every month or so. Then this one guy came into the Bean with a guitar on his back and I invited him to a show and he got me a gig at the Living Room. I gave him a demo and he came back and said, "This is great, do you want to make an album? I’m a producer and I would love to put this out." And I was like, "Yes. Yes I would like to make an album. That’s what I want to do." Since then, I’ve made three with him and he’s amazing. I play about once a month now at the Living Room. It’s a great venue, but unfortunately they are moving at the end of January. They are closing that location and looking for a new one due to skyrocketing rent.

This job works really well with music because I will leave for a month to go on tour and then come back to work and it’s no big deal. I can come back and work 45 hours the next week to make money or I can work 30 because I have a show and I’m busy. It’s really nice for that and they’ve been very flexible.

The Starbucks moving into the old Bean location was really interesting. Somebody came in with plans and wanted to look at the building. The manager there was just like, “What? Who are you? Where are you from?” And he was just like, “Oh I’m looking at this for Starbucks.” It was shocking and the landlord hadn’t told us that he was looking to not renew the lease to us. We were working on negotiating the lease and instead of doing it with us they just said nope. We kept trying to make offers.

At first I was really bummed out and then we got the other spot and it worked out better in the long run. Everybody supported us and spoke out about not wanting to go to Starbucks. Now the Bean is drastically more crowded than the Starbucks, which is kind of ugly. And I don’t hate Starbucks, but I definitely try not to go to any of them now, which is funny since I’m from Seattle.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Second on Second sets farewell party

Early last week, a tipster told us that Second on Second, the 10-year-old karaoke bar on Second Avenue, was closing at the end of this month... a combination of rising rent and slumping business...

The bar at 23 Second Ave. has made the closing official now... the farewell party is Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, on the topic of karaoke, a tipster points out that the Sing Sing emporium on St. Mark's Place has been on the market in recent months ... a few details via LoopNet (subscription required)...

Previously.

Reminder tonight: Meeting to discuss incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street

We first posted this last Tuesday... here's a reminder...

7-Eleven is coming to Avenue A at 11th Street. The residents of 11th Street won't sit for it. We're drawing the line of suburbanization here.

We have had about enough of chain stores and suburban franchises, Duane Reades, Walgreens and Chase Banks on every corner. We've chosen to fight. Join with us and let's start a city-wide resistance. Let's not sit for it any more.

MEETING: NO 7-11
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 6:30PM
545 EAST 11TH STREET
(Father's Heart Ministries, btwn A&B)

San Francisco has laws to restrict chain stores. NYC zoning laws don't prevent big box commercialism and the current mayor's planning department won't change those regulations. But a local election is coming.

Next year, this mayor will be gone — now's our opportunity to tell the coming administration that this does matter to us. If we don't raise the cry loud and clear, the new administration won't address it either.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the wholesale suburbanization and selling of New York lies in the hands of the people of New York. We've got to create the political will to fight against the death of this city. We've got to be visible and loud and persistent. New Yorkers have been sitting for it for a long time. We mustn't sit for it any longer.

There's likely a 7-Eleven near you, and if not, there will be. The 7-Eleven corporation has targeted the city for many more openings, intending to displace local commerce especially local bodegas. Don't sit for that.

Join the 11th Street resistance. Let's turn it into a Lower East Side resistance and a Manhattan resistance a Harlem and the Heights resistance and a Village and Chinatown resistance. Complacency=Suburbanization.

We're meeting on the 16th. Tell your friends. Bring your inventive ideas and your righteous indignation.

There's an addition to the meeting to note. Bowery Poetry Club founder Bob Holman will be there to tell to discuss "the No 7-11 campaign of No Chains on the Bowery," per the meeting invite. (Though there already is a 7-Eleven on the Bowery.)

Holman wrote this yesterday on Facebook:

You know my feelings about the architecture of my cross the street neighbors — that the Avalon Buildings are bland, tired, socialist post-modernism, while the Bowery is and always has been about life and art jazzed to extremes. But to be invaded by mall culture, the US's lowest common denominator, citizen as consumer —no! No Chains on the Bowery! They do it in San Francisco — let's go!

So, what do you think of the Annual No Pants Subway Ride?

The 12th Annual No Pants Subway Ride took place this past Sunday, as you may have noticed. If not, then here's the official recap...



The background:

The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual event staged by Improv Everywhere every January in New York City. The mission started as a small prank with seven guys and has grown into an international celebration of silliness, with dozens of cities around the world participating each year. The idea behind No Pants is simple: Random passengers board a subway car at separate stops in the middle of winter without pants. The participants do not behave as if they know each other, and they all wear winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The only unusual thing is their lack of pants.

Some 4,000 people apparently took part here. I saw a few people walking on First Avenue in their underwear... and coats. I thought about taking photos, but it seemed like a lot of effort. And a little pervy. Then again, you're the one in your underwear walking on First Avenue.

Not sure what else transpired after the ride.

What the fuck is this east village no pants bar crawl going on?

— Nick Lechner (@__nickkyy) January 14, 2013

All too corny for my tastes. Still, certainly far, far away from SantaCon on the Apoplectic Rage Meter. Didn't know how you felt about it... New Jack Cornballs? Or, Hey, We're Just Having Fun. If You Don't Like Fun, Then Move to... Or maybe somewhere in between.

[Updated] Reader report: Christmas trees burn on East Third Street

The FDNY responded to the scene of a fire on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B tonight around 8 ... where a pile of discarded Christmas trees caught fire in front of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer... Many thanks to EVG reader Francis Ratna for these shots before the FDNY arrived in force... one neighborhood super helped extinguish the flames ...

There weren't any reports of injuries or any further damage. Another reader noted that firefighters were checking out rooftops on the block for any errant embers...

Updated 1-16:

GammaBlog has more photos and a video here.

Tonight in photos of Charlie Sheen walking into McSorley's

[@auradis]

Oh.

Sign #18,526 the East Village is going to shit: just saw Charlie Sheen and his security detail going into McSorley's.

— Alex Koppelman (@AlexKoppelman) January 16, 2013

The actor has been in town promoting something or another, and making the talk-show rounds...

12 second of East Village Wooooooooooooo!

Thank you to Gothamist for pointing out the existence of this video. Uploaded yesterday and titled "Guys on top of a bus (roof) as it is driving in New York City (Manhattan - East Vilage)"

First Avenue and East Ninth Street to be exact.

Party bus!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East 10th Street and Avenue C]

Look what Frank Lloyd Wright was going to build on Second Avenue and East 11th Street! (Gothamist)

Happy anniversary to the St. Mark’s Historic District (Off the Grid)

From Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to the Bowery (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Remembering Dashane Santana 1 year later (BoweryBoogie)

MulchFest! (The Gog Log)

Photo purge! (Flaming Pablum)

And too late for the "breaking" headline...

also in morning neighborhood changes: Prune adding buffer to keep diners warm / corral brunch queuers (fyi, @evgrieve) twitter.com/seancarlson/st…

— Sean Carlson (@seancarlson) January 15, 2013

Whatever happened to that really ugly hotel planned for the Bowery?

Mystery Building Week continues. (See here and here for previous installments.)

The Salvation Army's East Village Residence closed here at the Bowery and East Third Street in August 2008. (Find some history of the space here.)

[February 2011, of course, because it doesn't snow here anymore]

And all was quiet for a few years. Until Jan. 11, 2011, when Lois Weiss at the Post reported that the France-based Louzon Group had bought the building and were planning on opening a new hotel here. Across the way from the Bowery Hotel. And two blocks from the then-Cooper Square Hotel (now the Standard East Village). Not to mention the rebranded Whitehouse Hotel and Hostel across the street. And close enough to the 569 hotels planned for the Lower East Side.

Remember the first rendering?

[Via Curbed]

Then! The next rendering! Keep in mind: This is not a joke.

[Via the Observer]

And yes — that's a Jumbotron up there.

As you'll recall, the reaction was... brutal? My favorite comment, via the EV Grieve Facebook page, came from Luc Sante:

It would be cheaper and more useful just to blow up the building and leave a 30-foot crater.

Anyway! Two years later, there's no sign of this hotel. (Which is a very good thing...) There's nothing on file for the property with the DOB. No demolition permits in the works. Nothing.

Did the Louzon Group changed its mind? They paid $7.6 million for the property. Anyone know what's going on with the space? Let us know via the EV Grieve email.

[Image created by Shawn Chittle]

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'

Why do the French hate us?

New York City's original Death Star

We had a post yesterday about 51 Astor Place, including quotes from developer Edward J. Minskoff from The Wall Street Journal. (Flashback: "it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing.")

So, you know, at least one neighborhood blogger and several readers who just obviously don't appreciate great-looking architecture have dubbed 51 Astor Place the "Death Star."

Meanwhile! Turns out that this isn't the city's first Death Star... Crazy Eddie came across this Shorpy photo from 1902...

Per the caption, "The Waldorf-Astoria, New York." The original, and somewhat forbidding, Waldorf at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Complete with the obligatory windowsill milk bottle.

Of course, this Death Star had a short life... In 1929, the original Waldorf-Astoria was demolished to make way for something called the Empire State Building. (Did plans for that ever move forward?)

Not sure I'd describe that old Waldorf as a "Death Star." Maybe we can swap this out for 51 Astor? Dibs on the corner room at the top.

No dice on East Second Street

New Urban Etiquette Sign spotted outside an apartment building on East Second Street between Avenue C and Avenue D...

Includes awesome clip art.

Actually, those look like playing cards. But the point is taken.

Today in Urban Etiquette dog poop signs

On the topic of Urban Etiquette Signs, a reader sent us the shot below from East 12th Street near Avenue B where "there is always dog shit smeared on the sidewalk."

Here's one way to perhaps curb this kind of non-practice ...

This sign led to a conversation about the worst blocks for uncurbed dogs. Aside from this stretch, one candidate suggested was the north side of East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... on the sidewalk, dubbed by someone as "poop alley," along the Village View parking lot.

That aside, remember — You don't fuck with East 12th Street.

New Year's resolutions: Eat more fries at Ray's

One resolution that we won't break. Photo of Ray by @gerryvisco via the Ray's Candy Store Facebook page.

Rumors: 2 Bros. Pizza is opening another East Village location

BaoBQ closed here on First Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street in August. The for rent signs are down... and someone put up black trashbags on the windows...

We've from several different tipsters now that a 2 Bros. Pizza will take over this space... there hasn't been any official confirmation on this from 2 Bros., who continue to expand in the city... If this is true, then this could be one more reason why Vinny Vincenz Pizza close by on First Avenue is now selling a $1 slice, as noted yesterday.

Of course, there's already a lot of cheap pizza right around here, from Papa John's and Joey Pepperoni across the street to the other Joey Pepperoni's and 7-Eleven around the way on East 14th Street...

The first 2 Bros. opened on St. Mark's Place in 2008.

And now, a photo of Morrissey not looking so happy on First Avenue

Several people spotted Morrissey in the East Village yesterday... on First Avenue with two friends looking for a cab. EVG reader Krist Sorge sent me the above photo ... via Instagram.

BoweryBoogie posted a photo here.

As BB notes, the former the lyricist and vocalist of The Smiths was last spotted around these parts coming to the aid of a woman who passed out at the Strand in September.

5 nights of Nick Zedd and the Cinema of Transgression

From the EVG inbox...

NICK ZEDD & THE CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION
January 15-19
9pm-late all nights

Glasshouse 246 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211(G to Broadway, M to Lorimer, or L/G to Metropolitan-Lorimer)

Entrance is free (suggested donation of $10 at the bar)

Leading figure in the avant-garde cinema and NYC underground scene of the 1980’s and 1990’s; Iconic filmmaker, writer, and painter, Nick Zedd returns to New York City for a festival dedicated to his work, providing New Yorkers with the rare opportunity to meet and experience this body of work.

In addition to coining the term “Cinema of Transgression” and critically framing the work of his contemporaries (as creator of Underground Film Bulletin from 1984–90 and writer of the Cinema of Transgression manifesto), Zedd is known for his low-budget films, paintings, and mid-2000’s public television series with Reverend Jen, Electric Elf.

For this event Zedd curated a special program with screenings of most of his works since the 80’s and hosting works of some of his peers in the Cinema of Transgression movement including films by Nicholas Abrahams, Tessa Hughes-Freeland & Holly Adams, Angelique Bosio, Richard Kern, Richard Klemann, Casandra Stark and documentary films by Mary Jordan and Andreas Troeger.

Here's a Nick Zedd Tumblr with more details of what's playing each night.

Zedd lived in the East Village for years... these days he's down in Mexico City with Monica Cassanova and their son Zerak. Here's an excerpt from Whitehot Magazine circa December 2011 on his decision to move:

I could have stayed in New York, but after awhile it became a self-imposed purgatory, going to court, fighting frivolous evictions and continually winning against a psychotic landlord, accepting the ugliness of gentrification and becoming more isolated as the city became a party to which I wasn’t invited. New people to collaborate with kept me there for decades; but they got fewer and farther between. Every scene disintegrated into petty backstabbing or was short-circuited by landlord harassment. A new crop of faux bohemians arrived as part of a sad, fucked-up Simulation. There were so many normal people around I became agoraphobic. They took over my building, paying exhorbitant rents, complaining about the sound of my feet.

Living in NY, your mind gets clouded by the struggle to survive with pointless tension; then you convince yourself you’ve accomplished something special by having one hour of peace a week that anywhere else would be a daily occurence. We put up with it for so long because we know that everywhere else in the country is even more boring. A false sense of self- righteousness infects New Yorkers after years of accepting miserable conditions, bad service and aesthetic ugliness in order to be part of a myth. The City is a good place for roaches and bedbugs but for humans it’s living death. What kind of a city would let the Mars Bar close?!

Gnome alone

Tompkins Square Park today. Leftover entertainment from the MulchFest this past weekend?

Photo by Bobby Williams

Rejected headlines:
Take me gnome tonight
Gnome for the holidays