Noted

On the plywood at the former Love Saves the Day spot, Second Avenue and Seventh Street.

Spina opens

As I mentioned Monday, Spina, an Italian place on Avenue B and 11th Street, opened yesterday... This addition bring the empty Avenue B storefronts total down to, uh, 18. I think it's time for a recount. Lots of comings and goings in recent months...

Report: Bogus help wanted ads fill Hoboken with New Yorkers looking for election work

Since I posted this... I found the photo that I took of one of the ads... This ad is on St. Mark's Place and Avenue A... For some reason, people in the neighborhood looking for work were victims of bullshit political escapades in Hoboken...

A flyer touting $200 pay for election work in Hoboken between 3:30 and 8 p.m. caused prospective hired hands from Manhattan to flood the mile-square city of Hoboken Tuesday. A runoff election is being held for mayor today between councilpeople Peter Cammarano and Dawn Zimmer. The flyer, which did not contain any “paid for” language as required by law, was found hanging on the Lower East Side of Manhattan by several men and women who came to Hoboken today looking for work. (The Hudson Reporter)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Slum Goddess has photos from Ray's benefit at C-squat... so does The Biggest Pants....

Hep A scare at Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Milk Bar (Eater)

Mr. Moss takes in the new High Line (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

And check out Ken Mac's Walking the High Line site.

The EV during WWII (Hunter-Gatherer)

How to get yourself on a Times Square billboard (BoingBoing)

A stretch Hummer on Seventh Street for the wedding party (Esquared)

LES getting a quickie wedding chapel (Daily Intelligencer)

Loud, shitty music brings out the notes from the neighbors (Curbed)

Read about Karate Boogaloo's ephemera (Ephemera)

Sonic Youth's 16th studio album is out today... and this is allegedly the band's first network TV appearance:

Weather on the run

"Is Butter Lane turning into a bar?"

Upon hearing the news that Butter Lane Cupcakes is going for a beer and wine license... and that the store is now open to midnight...



...and there has been the recent appearance of a rather harmless looking bench, chair, table and umbrella...



... compelled a Seventh Street resident who lives nearby to ask a simple question via e-mail, "Is Butter Lane turning into a bar?"

When there's no more room in the trash for your trash

Another nice weekend, another sighting of overflowing FroYo cup-topped trash in front of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.



Jeremiah has written about this...



...and I don't have anything to add to the discussion...



...but I was curious what people do when they need to discard their trash and there aren't any available trash cans...

"Step Up 3D" is pretty much going to be filming all over the place

Yes! "Step Up 3D" is back in the neighborhood filming Friday. And the crew will need the north side of Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue B... BOTH sides of Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's...BOTH sides of Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...the south side of St. Mark's between First Avenue and Avenue A... and the south side of 10th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

Other than that....

Previously "Step Up 3D" coverage on EV Grieve.

Craigslist ad of the day

Developing website needs models (Lower East Side)

We are looking for promotional models for a developing nightlife networking website. 18+ only. Send two FULL body shots for consideration. Pay is commission based, opportunity to earn 150 - 200 per hour.

------------------------------------------------

Well, I could use the work. Here goes nothing!

The Holiday continues with the cheesy promotions

What, no Jagerettes?



I'll say this again:

1) I understand the fact that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place needs to make money to stay open...so why not attract the dreaded free vodka crowd.

2) Stefan never would have gone for this.

Every picture tells a story: Rod Stuart strikes again

Spotted near St. Brigid's on Avenue B. Haven't seen Rod's work in awhile.

The weekend in review

The Post continued its sensitive coverage of David Carradine's death.

The psychics took to the streets!



Street fair!

We read about the passing of the "Mayor of the LES"

Benefit for Ray's at C-Squat. (Perhaps there will be more on this from The Biggest Pants or Slum Goddess.)



This couple got married on Seventh Street.



We learned that big law firms are becoming extinct.

We learned that fewer people are complaining about noise in NYC, except for the people who are complaining more about parties and music.

This Mercedes got towed from Fourth Street... thankfully, the car alarm is working.

The final countdown

As of yesterday, there were eight days left for the Virgin Megastore on Union Square. All CDs and DVDs are now 50 percent off their hiked up prices...



If you look hard enough, then you may find something that you may want... Otherwise, it's grotesque consumerism at its worst...



What remains is the Virgin Overstock Megastore. Things that were shipped in from Virgin Warehouses around the world just for the closing sale. What else could explain, say..... Dozens and dozens of "Hellboy II" action figures. Dozens and dozens of copies of the attempt to make Rick Springfield a movie star in "Hard to Hold." Dozens and dozens of copies of U2's "No Line on the Horizon" limited box set including CD, hardcover book, poster, featurette on the Edge buying a ski cap, a behind-the-scenes look at Larry Mullen Jr.'s First Communion and Bono's photo album of bikini-clad groupies. It's times like these when you realize there have been like 37 versions of "Blade Runner" released. You remember how little respect giant entertainment groups have for consumers.

And so many things whose existence was so unnecessary.




Oh, and the complete series (six seasons!) of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" is 50 percent off its $232 sticker price.

No anarchy?

For months now, the anarchy graffiti was on the wall of the real estate office on 11th Street and Second Avenue.



And now...



Interpret this any way that you wish.

Another Italian restaurant for Avenue B

I've been keeping an eye on 175 Avenue B at the corner of 11th Street. I've forgotten how many restaurants have been in here. (Uovo? Panificio?)



In any event, Spina opens at this spot tomorrow. It will be a nice Italian place with a sommelier. Paintings by Wayne Moseley will be on display there this month.

I think we will now officially have enough Italian restaurants in the neighborhood.

Fierce Pussy on Extra Place

There's new a Fierce Pussy work along the west wall on Extra Place.

Summer rental

On 10th Street across from Tompkins Square Park. I'm curious what the neighbors think.

Noted

Mayor Bloomberg's youngest daughter, Georgina, provides show-riding outfits to needy people through her program, The Rider's Closet. 'People say I should be changing the world instead of doing this,' Georgina said. 'But I get letters from people all the time saying I've changed their lives by providing them riding clothes they couldn't afford.'" (New York Post)

Former Waldorf Hysteria space getting the plywood

The long-vacated Waldorf Hysteria space at 165 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street is being renovated...



No word just yet on what this will become... Given recent trends, I'll go with a dry cleaners. There isn't one within 10 feet of this place.

Noted

"Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents — also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians — Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city’s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue’s boutiques and coffee houses." (The New York Times)

The motorcycle diaries

There was a rather mysterious beeping noise on Fifth Street near Avenue A. Neighbors first started hearing it Thursday night. The source was traced to a covered motorcycle parked by the Con Ed Avenue A substation. As of yesterday, the motorcycle's alarm continued to make the beeps at intervals of 10 seconds or so.

Fewer noise complaints to 311 -- except for that increase in complaints about loud music and parties

As the Post notes today: "Noise complaints phoned into the city's 311 hot line between January and March plummeted 16.5 percent compared to the first quarter last year -- from 9,292 to 7,755 -- and city officials cited fewer construction projects and slowing commerce for the newfound tranquility."

However!

"Economic misery might be prompting New Yorkers to seek company at raucous parties. Complaints of loud music and parties surged 18 percent in the first three months of this year."

Noted

Page 1 of the Post today...



And Friday...

The Times on why NYC corporate law firms are becoming an endangered species

"As the apocalypse on Wall Street ripples out into the larger economy, a thick red tide is lapping at the once-impregnable foundations of New York’s corporate law firms, threatening to turn the industry — and with it, some iconic city characters — into an endangered species." (The New York Times)

Street fair!

Second Avenue at 14th Street...





And I forgot that Stella's corners the market on some of the food options...

Meeting for a plan to preserve the Bowery

Click on the image below to read the Bowery Alliance of Neighbor's plan to preserve the east side of the Bowery from Ninth Street to Canal. There's a meeting to discuss the plan on June 16.

Remembering the "Mayor of the LES"

Great story today in The Wall Street Journal about Rudy Mancuso. On Oct. 3, 1951, at the Polo Grounds, Mancuso -- who had one exposure left on his camera -- took what is arguably the most famous photograph in the history of baseball: Giant Bobby Thomson taking an 0-1 fastball from Dodger Ralph Branca over the leftfield wall in the bottom of the ninth. And the Giants win the pennant!



Sadly, though, Mancuso never received credit for the photo. He even lost the negative. As Joshua Prager notes in the Journal, "And so, tragically, the man who shot 'The Shot Heard 'Round the World' was entirely forgotten."

Many years passed. Mancuso's pencil moustache turned from black to white as newswires and then vendors and then Web sites hocked an inexhaustible supply of his photo. He made no money from his shot and held no proof that it was he, an embosser and die cutter living in a Lower East Side walk-up, who'd most famously preserved baseball's greatest moment.

Anyway, you can read the story for yourself to see what became of the negative and to find out what he did at the Hotel Rivington. Mancuso died on May 10 at age 89.

The Times did a piece on photo in September 2006.

Last year at this time on EV Grieve: The Lower East Side — There goes the neighborhood

That's the headline for the May 28, 1984, New York magazine cover story that I recently came across. The piece begins in the early 1980s with the rotting hulk of the Christodora and the young man eager to own it, Harry Skydell.

You can read the article here.

Not That Way Anymore

Stiv Bators died June 4, 1990. (Via Ohio Sounds via Punk Turns 30)

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

The freakologist of Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Smith's cleans up when we weren't looking (Lost City)

The East Village circa 1934 (Hunter-Gatherer)

"Sorcerer's Apprentice" fun on 17th Street (BoweryBoogie)

Crap! We missed National FroYo Day! (Eater)

Depeche Mode lead singer sells WV townhouse, buys Battery Park penthouse (The Observer)

Depeche Mode? Musical interlude!



A family of four's 700-square-foot EV apartment (Dwell)

Lux Living has a stalker (Lux Living)

Looking at Music: Side 2 at MoMa (Stupefaction)

Dave's new shirt; Biker Bill's new hat (Slum Goddess)

"Diary of a Times Square Thief" is one of 120 films to play at the Brooklyn International Film Festival...which starts today.

The Scavengers

Last Saturday, a group of post-collegiate types took part in a scavenger hunt throughout the neighborhood. Sometime after 7, the group reportedly convened in front of Sophie's. There, the group members assembled many of the things they apparently had on their list to find. They all took pictures of each other with their junk. They were rather harmless in the grand scheme of annoying post-collegiate types who go on scavenger hunts and/or pub crawls in the neighborhood. Still, as several people confirmed, they were characterized as rambunctious and oblivious to their surroundings. They were, we understand, shooed away from the front of Sophie's by management. They were giving the impression that the ruckus on Fifth Street was caused by bar patrons. This was not the case. The group moved west toward Avenue A with their scavenger-hunt possessions in tow for more pictures. Then, the group parted ways, leaving behind everything that they had collected for someone else to clean up.

A quick follow-up to Tuesday night's Cooper Square Hotel meeting

As you know, on Tuesday night, the East Fifth Street Block Association had a community meeting with Matthew Moss, principal of the Peck Moss Hotel Group, the developer of the Cooper Square Hotel. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and raise any concerns about the hotel's impact on the neighborhood. Several community leaders were in attendance, including CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer and SLA & DCA Licensing Chair Alexandra Militano. I asked Stuart Zamsky, head of the East Fifth Street Block Association, two questions in a follow-up e-mail.

I wanted to get your thoughts on how you think the meeting went. Do you think some progress was made?

I think the meeting went well. I think the community was civil yet persuasive. And, I think that Stetzer and Militano were great assets who were clear and decisive in their thoughts. And, I think it sank in to the hotel/Matt.

The one thing that was missing (and has been missing from the whole process) is a strong showing by 207 [E. Fifth St.] residents. This was their strongest showing yet, but it was too little too late. I am dumbfounded at their lack of verve and participation, considering what they have at stake.

What were you thoughts when you saw the party afterwards at the Cooper for the $280,000 DBS Volante Convertible?

The cause of the party did not faze me. It's a ritzy hotel and will host high-end clients for special events. Rich/poor...that's NYC. That it went on too late, in a noisy fashion, and seemed unstoppable is worrisome.

"Some great art was produced in those self-indulgent times"

The Times checks in with a review of the new Cooper Union academic building on Seventh Street and Cooper Squuare... and they like it.

To the review!

We’ll have to wait to find out exactly what the end of the Age of Excess means for architecture in New York. Yes, the glut of high-concept luxury towers was wearisome. But some great civic works were also commissioned in that era. And given the hard economic times, they may be the last we see for quite some time.

The new academic building at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is yet more proof that some great art was produced in those self-indulgent times.

And!

The building occupies a contentious site at Cooper Square, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, in the East Village. The area has experienced a particularly painful process of gentrification in the past decade. First, generic glass boxes began popping up along the Bowery. Then CBGB closed. For me the final straw was the opening in 2005 of Gwathmey Siegel’s undulating glass luxury apartment tower at Astor Place, a vulgar knockoff of Mies van der Rohe’s unbuilt Glass Skyscraper project and a symbol of the era’s me-first mentality.

And!

Yet the more you look at the building, the more it looks right at home in its surroundings. From certain angles the facade’s concave form seems to exert a magnetic pull, as if it were trying to embrace the neighborhood in front of it. The curve of the corner, which lifts up to invite people inside the lobby, has an unexpected softness. Even the bulky exterior mirrors the proportions of the Foundation building — a friendly nod to its older neighbor.