Good news for the Blarney Cove?

I tend to worry about things, such as seeing large parcels of real estate on the market next to the beloved Blarney Cove. This area on 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is ripe for development. So when when the "space available" signs went up last summer...Hello Marc Jacobs! Hello huge Chase branch!



But back to reality, here we go...the new occupant along this stretch...with the BC safe and sound for now.



Let the sunshine in....



Many thanks to our friend Cat Sitter for the tip!

A "Cool Breeze" on Avenue B

I wish I knew more about this screenshot of movie ads...A reader passed it along in response to yesterday's post on the Charles. You can see that the 1972 classic "Cool Breeze" was playing at the Charles....



Note to self: Must find "Tower of Screaming Females."

Oh.

The ramenators are ready to ramenate next week

The new ramen place on Second Avenue at Seventh Street is nearly complete. No trace of LSD remains. (Not that I expected a tribute...) The paper is off the windows...and at least 30 restaurant workers in uniform were inside prepping food, etc. I asked someone when they'd be open, and he replied, "Next week." Looks like it will be open in 10 minutes. Perhaps they'll be serving "family and friends" this weekend.

How YOU can be an extra on SATC, part Duh

The Daily News has the inside poop, er scoop, on nailing that SATC part Duh casting call. And it's sooooo helpful!:

“You have to dress for success,” says well-known casting director Bernard Telsey, whose company is casting the speaking roles in the “Sex and the City” sequel (but not Tuesday’s open-call audition). “If I were going for the socialite part, I’d come dressed to the nines. I’d see what people wore to the Met gala event.”

Short of not eating from now until Tuesday, chain-smoking and sipping Champagne while you wait in line to pass yourself off as a model, Telsey advises: “Dress like anyone you see in Vogue.”

The kiss of death, on the other hand, is obscuring your face. “Wearing an outfit that doesn’t show the shape and size of your face won’t get you the job,” says Telsey. Same goes for hairstyle, even if you’re passing yourself off as a supercool clubber.

“When you walk into the casting call, they immediately see if you’re right or not,” says Celina Carvajal, who was cast by Telsey as “City Girl #4,” aka a young Miranda Hobbs (the Cynthia Nixon character), in the first “Sex” film. “If you’re not right, [there’s] nothing you can do but make yourself as perfect as you can. You won’t get everything. It’s part of this business.”

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

The long-dormant Hispanic evangelical church that was housed in the building here on Avenue B between 11th Street and 12th Street...



...is now up for rent. Two spaces are available: One at 1,000 square feet and the other at 1,220 square feet. This is a prime chunk of space ripe for something horrible. However. Given the store-bought sign, the lack of a broker and the fact that space is only for rent, and not for sale, we remain hopeful. We're curious about what kind of tenant Pastor Carlos seeks.



Meanwhile. This building is hallowed ground for many cinephiles. The space here at 193 Avenue B opened in 1926 as the Bijou, a 600-seat theater with a balcony. It later bacame the Charles Theatre. As Cinema Treasures notes: "In later years it was one of the early New York theatres to program off-beat and independent films. It showed early Warhol and had open film nights where young filmmakers could get an audience."

You can see the Charles here in this shot from 1949. We're looking north from 11th Street. (Via.)




Here's more info on the Charles via:

[T]he Charles "provided the underground with it's first, semi-permanent base of operations." While the theaters tenure was short-lived (a little over a year--- beginning in 1961) it's legacy was quite impressive. "...it became a landmark of sorts in the creation of an American counterculture."

Jonas Mekas was hired by the owners of the Charles to organize some additional screenings. "Mekas was then in the early stages of his passionate commitment to American experimental cinema" but "had an eye for new talent"...and began holding monthly open screenings which turned out to be great social events. Some audience members quickly made the transition to filmmakers, while others acted/participated as critics.

In light of the above the Charles emerges as a "Great Good Place" because "it was the spiritual home of a particular utopian ideology, a place where the audience was not just the passive recipient of mass-produced fantasies, but an active community, producing movies for itself. The Charles therefore incorporated films and film making into an alternative sense of family and community through freedom and equality.

Here's the Charles in 1966. (Via.)



There's a lot more, of course. (For example, in February 1962, the Arkestra — billed as Le Sun Ra and his Cosmic Space Jazz Group — made their New York debut at the Charles.) But you get the idea for now. I'll have more later. As far as I can find, the use of this space as a theater ended in 1975.

I'll leave you with this letter from the Metropolitan Diary from earlier this summer:

Dear Diary:

Growing up on 16th Street between Avenues B and C before Stuyvesant Town was built meant that respite from summer’s heat was available only if you went to the upscale movie theaters like the RKO Jefferson or the Academy of Music, both farther west on 14th Street. No such luxury could be found at the local movie house, the Bijou Theater, on Avenue B between 11th and 12th Streets.

This two-story theater was strictly a no-frills neighborhood flick house. But when the summer temperature inside became unbearable or cigarette smoke blurred the screen, the ceiling of the Bijou began to ever so slowly slide open from the center toward the edges to provide egress for both heat and Lucky Strike’s blue vapors.

For a 10-year-old like me it was magic — until a sudden thunderstorm came up and the rain began pelting the seats. The roof’s closing speed was also ever so slow, and people scrambled in all directions like it was a fire drill. When it finally closed, we all went back to our seats, gave them a swipe with a handkerchief and never took our eyes off the screen.

The Marx Brothers had their “Night at the Opera.” We had our nights at the Bijou.

Victor Washkevich

A great storefront

The Chupa Barbara Insurance office on Sixth Street near Second Avenue Avenue is one of my favorite storefronts in the neighborhood...



...a reminder of a different era in the East Village.



And so I always get a little nervous when I see notes posted in the window.



Thankfully, this sign just told of reduced hours this week for a holiday.

Meanwhile... another favorite, of course, just steps away on the corner.

Have you signed the petition to save Rudy's?

You can do it here. Or, better yet, go in person. The L Magazine has the story. (Eater has more.)

Time Out still making amends for last week's "Mosaic Man" cover snub

In this week's issue.




Previously.

Noted

ON a recent evening, an unusual experiment took place at a lounge in downtown Manhattan. Nine blindfolded women were asked to determine, by smell alone, whether any among a group of nine men was worth pursuing. (The New York Times)

(Hope that she wasn't here...)

The Bald Man sings

Whoa. Gothamist is reporting that Max Brenner/Chocolate by the Fat, Bald Guy has closed on Second Avenue and Ninth Street. Hmm...in January, the Chocolate Bar closed on Seventh Street.

Meanwhile, let's start the pool on what takes over that prime Bald Man space. I'm going with a Chase bank!

P.S.
If you want some sidewalk cafe stuff, then now is your chance. The shop is closed...and things look rather abandoned outside.

Assessing the storm damage

In Tompkins Square Park. Anything else?

Last day for Olivo's

Thanks to Melanie, who informs me that today is the last day for Olivo's at 55 Avenue C near Fourth Street.



The homey and unusual little shop (part gaming, part yarn!) has been here for 36 years, and is a father-son operation.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Olivo's on Avenue C.

Bye, bye Baraza

Baraza has closed. I walked by the Latin-themed joint on Avenue C between Eighth Street and Ninth Street last night. The door was open. The space had been gutted.



There's no note to patrons on the door ... and the Baraza Web site makes no mention of closing. However, Baraza's MySpace page confirms that the bar closed.

It opened in 1998. I've never been there... So I looked to see what I had missed via Yelp. Where I found this review:

If you go dancing without first putting on deoderant, I will go on Yelp and write about how everyone in the club smells like ass , and how fair is that to the club, really? I mean it's not like Baraza washed the deoderant off all these dudes as they were coming in the front door...at least, I don't think.

Let me explain something. There are a few things that I do without fail when I go out dancing. Actually, scratch that. When I leave the house. I brush my teeth. I put on clothes. I put on deoderant. Why, patrons of Baraza, do you not do the same? I was lucky enough to receive several offers to Latin dance throughout my evening there and it was good to know that I didn't need the cash-only bar to end the night passed out, since I was sure to pass out on the stench of body odor alone coming off my potential suitors. If you see someone tackling dudes as they come inside and rubbing them down with speedstick, that might be me. Watch out. Or wear deoderant. Your choice.

Former auto body shop REALLY ready for development

One-story structures seem to be a rarity in the East Village these days, which I wrote back in the fall. Take, for instance, 424 E. 10th St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. Sam's Auto Body Shop moved away awhile ago, I thought, and the building was put up for sale. Perhaps another mechanic can open shop? Ha!



I thought this was already a done deal. Another condo rising. Didn't think much more of this until...the property popped up on Trulia on Monday... According to the listing at Massey Knakal:

East Village residential development opportunity, with a curb cut. Currently a vacant, one story garage on East 10th street between C and D. This site has plans for a seven story, 18 unit, residential building, w/ a total of 16,793 gross SF above grade which includes a 3,679 SF parking garage. Prior to the June 30th 421-a deadline, the plans were submitted to DOB enabling the full property tax exemption benefits. Another option is to file an ?alt plan? and develop the property to custom specifications while still maintaining the 421-a tax benefits. This is a unique project for a developer or user and is ready to go.

So I stopped by 424 E. 10th St. for an updated photo. And what did I find there?



Oh, a seven-story residential building. Shh! Let's keep it our secret!

The Cooper Square Hotel "doesn’t just stick out among the nearby tenements but more or less taunts them"

In the Times today. From Frank Bruni's review of Table 8 at the Cooper Square Hotel:

It’s the Cooper Square Hotel, a whimsical glass sliver that doesn’t just stick out among the nearby tenements but more or less taunts them, declaring them holdovers from a frumpier East Village past. The hotel tries to claim the neighborhood around it as a party zone on a homogenously slick, glossy par with South Beach or West Hollywood.

Not all the neighbors are amused. Some have responded to the din of chatter and generic lounge music coming from the hotel’s second-floor terrace by hanging dirty briefs and the like from a clothesline readily visible to the revelers. It’s a campaign of undermining by underwear.

I spotted only one sad, fluttering garment on the evening when I ate on Table 8’s street-level patio. And it did less to ruffle my serenity — the patio is a pretty, breezy treat — than the door that crashed into the back of my chair when someone decided to step outside. Placing a table for diners smack in the door’s way exemplifies the curious planning at which Table 8 excels.

And the sound level inside Table 8? "absolutely bonkers" and "excruciating."

And make sure to read the part about the wine in the restrooms.

Cashed out

Second Avenue near Fourth Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Scott Stringer: Enough with the ATMs!

Noted

Ugh

Guss' Pickles moving to Brooklyn (The Lo-Down)

On the way: A five-story apartment building for Fifth Street

Last November, I noted the destruction of 532 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. The four-story home was quickly knocked down.



And today, work continues on the land's new tenant: A 10-unit, five-story apartment building. Staten Island-based Door to Door Realty's name is attached to this project. According to their Web site: "[W]e create an environment that is affordable, welcoming and chic."





And two notes from locals on the plywood:




Previously on EV Grieve:
Demolition on East Fifth Street
East Fifth Street update

No more Cure

I walked by Cure last night on Seventh Street near Avenue A. And as I suspected, it's gone. The menus were pulled down from the window. The inside looked to be in disarray. Also, a man had set up his bed out front for the night.



Previously on EV Grieve:
No Cure for this location?

"Kids" these days

I was reminded that "Kids" was released in 15-or-so-odd markets on July 28, 1995. It opened in NYC on July 21. And we all knew people so excited about this. Parts of the movie were filmed around here, of course. And the reviews! ("A wake-up call to the world!") I was dragged along to the Angelika. (According to the Times back on July 26, 1995: " 'Kids' broke the house records for weekend box office grosses at both theaters where it played, the Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.")

I recall feeling underwhelmed by the film, though between the hype and the backlash it was difficult to keep an open mind. Anyway, I watched "Kids" again last weekend for the first time in 14 years...and turned it off after 20 minutes. I'll pick it again some other day.

Stereotypes wanted for R-Pattz film (Any "Rock N Roll East Village types" out there?)

According to an R-Pattz fanboy site:

Summit Entertainment is casting New York City extras for the Robert Pattinson film, Remember Me!

Grant Wilfley Casting is seeking local SAG New York City people for "Remember Me" extras to work through mid - August 2009:

* Hipsters, Rock N Roll East Village types;
* NYU student types;
* NYPD;
* FDNY;
* Washington Square Park Types (musicians, dealers, Rastas, artists, etc..);
* nanny types;
* real clowns with own make-up and props.

Oh. And if you are interested, which is fine:

Email a recent picture and contact information to: rememberme@gwcnyc.com
(Please e-mail a current headshot or snapshot of yourself and contact info and write the role you are submitting for in the subject line).

If submitting for the NYPD roles, please email a current headshot or snapshot of yourself and contact info to rememberme@gwcnyc.com ASAP and write “SAG NYPD w/ Light Blue shirt” in the subject line.

SAG advises its members that it is a misdemeanor to own or wear an NYPD uniform if you are not a member of the NYPD. Members who are not also members of the NYPD could be arrested if they are found transporting a police uniform.

Meanwhile, your chance to be in motion picture history: SATC part duh (Esquared)

Dumpster of the Day

Oh, and it's affordable...On Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Fallen tree on Sixth Street, day two

Just looking at what's left of the tree that nearly took out Banjara Sunday night on Sixth Street near First Avenue.

Day two storm coverage continues

Did someone run out of his/her shoes trying to escape the rain?

No Cure for this location?

We noticed that Cure was not open this past weekend. Maybe the owners of the small plates/wine bar decided to take the weekend off. Though you think they'd have left a note. Plus, well, they just opened in mid-April. Or maybe this space on Seventh Street near Avenue A is jinxed. In quick succession this spot was nearly the East Village Pie Lounge.... Previously, it was the short-lived Italian cafe Affettati.

Go inside Noot Seear's closet, see her nipple artwork

Ah, our old friend Noot, who lives in the Christodora House.


See more videos on modelinia.com

Cleaning up after the storm

City crews were out this morning at Seventh Street and Avenue B. Previously.