Prepping for Julia

Crews are out preparing for the massive "Eat, Pray, Love" shoot tomorrow -- most notably on Fifth Street near Second Avenue. (A few signs said that filming would also occur today...I didn't see any filming.) The ensemble cast features Julia Roberts.





Well, let's hope this film is good for the sake of Miss Roberts. To be honest, her career has been in a tailspin since 1988's "Satisfaction."



(You'll notice the movie also features Britta Phillips and Deborah Harry.)

Meeting set to discuss bars and noise on Avenue A

Specifically on Avenue A between 12th Street and 14th Street, where two new bars have opened this summer to enthusiastic crowds.

According to the information that I received:

The meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

It will be at the Dias Y Flores Garden at 520-522 E. 13th St. (between A and B).

District 2 City Council member Rosie Mendez will run the meeting along with Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3. They will address the overabundance of bars and the noise they cause, what can be done by residents and what is being done and will be done by Mendez's office and CB3.

The Dias Y Flores Garden.



Related:
Noise complaints? What you can do about via CB3 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Aces & Eights now serving food

During the May 11 CB3 SLA Licensing Committee meeting, Aces & Eights, the frathole on Avenue A in the former Mo Pitkin's space, heard it from residents and CB3 members. As Eater reported:

A number of EVill oldtimers stood up to complain about noise, while the CB members questioned the lack of food in the restaurant, the 13 TVs (they were allowed to have only two), and the advertisements for drinking games. In his defense the owner said food was on the way — though we think it's safe to assume he means wings, nachos, and bar snacks — and that beer pong should not be equated with binge drinking, "It's one pitcher divided into 16 cups!" The peanut gallery had a good laugh, and the committee decided to write a letter to the SLA.

Anyway, that food has arrived. Per the menu now on the front window:

Don't be alarmed

When you walk by First Avenue Pierogi & Deli near St. Mark's today, the gate will be down. And there won't be a note outside offering any explanation.



However, it's OK. The shop will be closed for a holiday and will reopen after Labor Day...They had a sign up inside the store for the past few weeks.

Weekend recap: Chain stores, Superdives, drunken hooligans and Julia Roberts

Seventh Street to get a chain-store smoothie shop.

Julia Roberts and "Eat, Pray, Love" filming all over the EV today and tomorrow.

The Post writes about Superdive, which was closed for private parties again.

"Drunken hooligans" the norm now in the EV.

I can't believe someone would sell this!

And, at the time I walked by this sidewalk sale on Eighth Street near Avenue C, no one had bought it yet... Where's your taste, people?

Yes

Arizona-based smoothie outlet coming to Seventh Street

Xoom Juice. At the site of the former Tiny Living shop, which closed in April, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Xoom has three locations in Tuscon, Ariz. So what are we in for? According to their Web site:

what's the xoom difference? good question
well, for starters, it's what we leave out of our drinks: no sherbet, no sorbet, no ice cream, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, or anything to artificially flavor our smoothies.

so what's left? how about just pure fruit, 100% fruit juice, organic soymilk or milk, and a bit of yogurt (frozen or fresh or non-dairy), and a *xoomer* nutrient boost. that's it. end of story.

we do this for two reasons:
1) it is really healthy
2) it tastes fabulous

we figure why mess with mother nature?
we just blend it together

The Tuscon Weekly has named Xoom the "best smoothie" the last four years... though, having never been to Tuscon, we're not sure what their competition is like...

"Eat, Pray, Love" -- starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem -- will pretty much be filming everywhere in the East Village on Monday and Tuesday

The adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-seller "Eat, Pray, Love" commences filming this week...kicking off a globe-spanning story in the East Village. And, based on the cast, and the number of filming fliers that I spotted, this promises to be an enormous production. I saw EPL signs on Second Avenue, First Avenue, Avenue A, Third Street to Ninth Street. And Brad Pitt is co-producing the film.

P.S.
In case you didn't want to remember....Gilbert's 1997 GQ article, "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon," a memoir of hercareer as a bartender at you-know-where, was the basis for the "Coyote Ugly" cinema klassik

At Superdive: "You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been"

The Post explores the world of Superdive and dive bars today. Fasten your seat belts! We're going in!

With its clean taps, friendly service and young, attractive patrons, Superdive is in many ways the anti-dive. Where's the bearded tranny? The surly, toothless barmaid? The non-functioning alcoholic cashing his SSI check for another round? Sure, it's teeming with college students looking to get wasted, but where's the dank?

Unlike New York's classic old-man bars, Superdive is neither moody in decor (it has large front windows and light pinewood accents) nor spirit (its patrons are prone to high-fives and huzzahs). "People are coming to celebrate," says manager Keith Okada. "Not to get dark and down in a hole."

And!

[M]aybe Superdive's no-frills, keg-centric vibe is just what the Type A alcoholics of tomorrow are looking for. "In a world where everything is so designed and chichi, we just wanted a nice place where people can sit, relax and not feel pressured to spend mega amounts of money," says Okada.

And you have to agree, it sure beats $20 mixed drinks.

And!

And if the list of more than 700 beers -- from a $180 sixtel (one-sixth of a keg) of UFO Hefeweizen to a $360 half-keg of Coors Light -- proves too overwhelming, "keg master" Matt Breinich will help you navigate the list.

Breinich's duties don't end there: "I haven't seen any beer pong disputes, but if there was one I would certainly be there to help resolve it."

In addition to Ping-Pong balls, the bar also keeps cards, dice and poker chips on hand for impromptu drinking games. (Keg stands, however, are officially frowned upon.) Meanwhile, the piano underneath the perpetually lit "Applause" sign in back of the bar may be the site of future "Hair Metal Karaoke" nights. And instigating the party some weekends is mini-metal head Nick Reddy, who's been known to jump on the bar and dole out Jager shots to ecstatic college kids.

With its emphasis on drunken comradery, the frat bar has a direct lineage to the dive bar -- even if it does stem from a love for competitive drinking and Dave Matthews. If dive-bar habitues are self-loathing outsiders, then their frat-bar brethren are the cool kids at the party, explaining why Superdive initially comes off as exuding typical jock one-upmanship.

"You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been. The people who come in are excited about the concept, they want to come back," says Breinich.

And!

It may not smell like stale beer -- yet -- but Superdive does smell like a winner: It's currently booked almost a month out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights -- so if your name isn't on the guest list, good luck getting past the front door. "We're working on those hiccups," says Okada. But try telling that to the dejected- looking guys outside.

Hiccups?

Hiccups

"All the junkies and prostitutes are gone, and replaced by drunken hooligans"

The Post has a piece today titled The East "Pillage" (And the paper even acknowledges the original source -- Scoopy!)

Someone orchestrated a break-in at famed composer Philip Glass' home in the East Village, but got away only with a cellphone.

Magdalena Adorno, 41, faces charges of burglary and possession of stolen property in the July 17 incident at the property on East Third Street, cops said yesterday.

She was arrested within hours of the burglary, which has neighbors talking about how the area near the Bowery has lately become more crime-ridden.

Police didn't say what was taken, but a story in The Villager said the thief got away only with a cellphone.

Area residents and business people say the neighborhood has become a drunken party zone for noisy teens and 20-some- things who litter the streets with trash.

"All the junkies and prostitutes are gone, and replaced by drunken hooligans," said Claude Campbell, who for 20 years has owned the East Village Music Store.

"At least you could tell the junkies to go away," Campbell said.

Photos by Brian Finke via New York

Touring the LES again: "Its unloveliness remains resolute"

Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post

JoAnn Greco, a native New Yorker who frequented the LES as a child, moved to Philadelphia in 1991. She hasn't been back to the LES since then. Greco, a travel writer, did this piece -- Posh Meets Past on New York City's Lower East Side -- for The Washington Post.

A few of her observations.

As I exited the tour, I noticed that the street signs were marked "New York City Orchard Street Bargain District," even though $2 million apartments and $400 hotel rooms have invaded the area.

And!

I peeked into the much-talked-about Hotel on Rivington, all mock mod with its white and red tubular entryway and Space Age touches. Its restaurant, however, celebrates the surroundings with a courtyard situated between picturesquely dilapidated tenements.

And!

It was all very encouraging: newcomers embracing the past and oldsters stepping up to the future. The shop talk may have changed -- some 40 galleries can be found here -- and the eateries may have gotten fancier. Too many tenements have been defaced and even erased. But this place continues to feel different: Its unloveliness remains resolute, the Williamsburg Bridge still swoops off Delancey Street, and the jabber of multiple languages is ever-present. Endangered, maybe. But gone? Never.

Wonder what her opinion would have been after a visit on a Friday night.

In a room

"The Chelsea Girls" this weekend.

Crime report of the day

From the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post:

A thief who swiped a smartphone was arrested after he tried to sell it back to the owner in the East Village, authorities said yesterday.

The incident began at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, when the victim discovered his Blackberry missing after leaving Ray's Pizza on East Houston Street near Ludlow Street, cops said.

When he dialed the phone, Damon Bradley, 35, answered and demanded $125 from the owner to get it back.

They arranged to meet at Avenue D and 8th Street, but when Bradley got there, police were waiting for him.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Has the Penistrator reared his ugly head in the Upper High Line region? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY, maybe NSFW)

Several reports of suits at old P.S. 64 on Ninth Street — where new hell might this be? (Save the Lower East Side! and Scoopy's Notebook)

The butcher of TSP (Ephemeral New York)

Price cuts at the Flowerbox on Seventh Street (Curbed)

"Chelsea Girls" this weekend at Anthology Film Archives (Esquared)

A shooting on Clinton Street? (BoweryBoogie)

An argument to make the national drinking age 18 (BoingBoing)

A history of hipsters (Time via Gothamist)

Meanwhile, in Germany LGG greets her fans out front of her hotel, though does so before putting on clothes.



"I'm homesick for New York. I can't tell you how much I miss that city. I love it all: the concrete, the bars, my family and friends."

Photo via the superficial

Forgotten NY on Peter's grocery

Thanks to EV Grieve favorite Forgotten NY for featuring the now-shuttered Peter's grocery on Madison Street. As FNY noted:

Peter's had an odd geometry because the store was located on one of NYC's sharpest triangles. NYC's downtown area doesn't have the strict grid arrangement found uptown; St. James Place was once part of the colonial-era Post Road to Boston, which meandered thither and yon all over the east side of Manhattan Island. When other streets were laid out the Post Road met them at sharp edges.

A Forgotten NY reader said that Peter retired and sold the building.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Peter's: A disappearing face of New York disappears

Inside the Charles

Yesterday, I did a piece on the former evangelical church/historical theater (the Bijou, then the Charles) on Avenue B that's now for rent.

An EV Grieve reader was able to get some photos inside the old theater. The reader noted that it looked as if many of the original features were still in place.





A few other observations from the reader: There's a bit of a musty smell -- likely the effects from the fire that started on the Avenue B side in October 2006. The back part, where the main theater/church is, looks to have escaped any damage.

After the theater closed, Pastor Carlos's uncle bought the building in 1975. It has been a church since then.

As the reader notes, "Pastor Carlos said he that plans to see if he can raise some funds to fix the place up and continue his church and community work. I hope he succeeds, it's really an incredible space and it would be great to see it back in use."



Meanwhile, the spaces for rent are roughly 1,000 square feet and 1,220 square feet. The entrances to the storefronts are on the Avenue B side. The theater entrance is on 12th Street. The reader even created a diagram of the space (not to scale):



And two shots that I took of the space...

Voices travel. Voices travel. Voices travel. Voices travel. Voices travel. Voices travel.

An EV Grieve reader notes:

"Superdive has to know how loud their customers are. What else explains the existence of SIX signs telling patrons to be quiet?"

And Jill has more on the increased noise problems on Avenue A in this sector...

P.S.

The bar was open Wednesday night -- no private parties.

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.)