East Hardware closing

The signs at East Hardware at 79 Third Avenue near 11th Street say that the store is moving from its ground floor space in the Third North NYU dorm...




When I asked where they were moving, I received a blank look. Pause. "We're not. We're just leaving this location." Rent hike. I said that I was sorry to hear this. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders. "That's life."

Yes, especially here.

Polishing up the Pee Phone

Yesterday, a man was busy cleaning up the Pee Phone on Avenue A and Seventh Street...He was cleaning the glass, scrubbing off some graffiti...generally just making things cleaner...



...so that we all can see these...



More Pee Phone Photos:
Pee Phone: Still Gross Yet Sexy as Hell! (Slum Goddess)

Strange Happening Atop the Infamous "Pee" Phone at 7th Street and Avenue A Wednesday Night (Neither More Nor Less)

Pee Pee Phone On E7th St.& Ave. A (Melanie)

Great Jones Cafe back open today? (Update: No)

The signage on the door (and Web site) indicates that the Great Jones Cafe on Great Jones near the Bowery will reopen today.



A fire knocked the eatery out of commission back in mid-November. As the Web site states, call ahead first.

UPDATE: A reader noted that the Web site now says Dec. 29 for the opening date.

Noted

To plan your holidays.

As for New Year's Eve, Eater reported on Superdive's special:

For the low, low price of $75, party goers will get seven hours of endless kegs of beer, premium cocktails, Champagne, music, dancing and last but not least, kissing!

As the snow continues to melt...

...Pope John Paul II gets a new hat at St. Stanislaus Church on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

10th Street and Fourth Avenue ready to fall? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The Scouting NY guide to the City (Scouting NY)

All Patti Smith, all the time. Which is good (The New York Times)

Bloody wheelchair battle at EV shelter (Gothamist)

Jude Law defends tossing his fruit at NYU students (New York Post)

Hanging out with Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

"Monpura," a successful Bangladeshi film, opens tonight at the Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place.

More neighborhood snow shots at BoweryBoogie and Musings by Melanie and Blah Blog Blah. And some at Coney Island. (Lexiphane)



And at Maxwell's in Hoboken ... From the press release:

A selection of oil paintings by Jon Hammer exploring the charms of a vanishing natural resource. Bars, taverns, and tap rooms, whether they are of historic vintage or more simply valued as a neighborhood hangout, are constantly under threat of extinction. Cookie cutter Irish-pub-in-a-box and sports bars proliferate with the speed and tenacity of fungal spores. This group of paintings seeks a visual fungicide for that trend in some of the best old-fashioned watering holes. Some are New York City legends, others are humbler, and a few, sadly, are already gone. Each work attempts to preserve a bit of the quiet, dusty, organic clutter that brews over time in a good saloon. They function as a two dimensional attitude adjustment hour.

John Penley's photo blog

Longtime East Village activist/photojournalist John Penley has launched a new photo blog, where you can find provocative shots from the neighborhood such as this...



Visit his site here.

For further reading on EV Grieve:
John Penley leaves his photography collection to archenemy NYU; still annoyed by NYU students

Take two

This Web site turns two today. I'm grateful to everyone who has been a reader and commenter. I've enjoyed making friends with so many like-minded people who appreciate this very special neighborhood. Thank you for being part of this.

(Updated) The Penistrator, or a clever imitator, returns

With this weekend's snowfall, we expected as much...On Avenue A near Fourth Street...



Unfortunately, much of the possible evidence was tainted before we could properly examine it.



Bob Arihood also captured some of the Penistrator's work from the weekend storm.

UPDATED:

While out and about earlier, we found more handiwork from this shameless snoffiti artist...






Previously on EV Grieve:
An EV Grieve investigative report: In search of the Penistrator

A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

Snow is in the forecast tonight, which means....

The Ludlow roof used for PETA's nude photo shoot

Last week, you may have read about PETA's latest "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad that we unveiled in Times Square featuring Bethenny Frankel, who is apparently on "The Real Housewives of New York City."

Anyway, the photo shoot took place atop The Ludlow at Ludlow and Houston, according to PETA.



Perhaps The Ludlow can figure out a way to work this into their marketing materials.

Hmmm...How about:

"Red Square has the first head of state of the Soviet Union...



...but we have Bethenny Frankel!"



If you want, you may watch a behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot, which also features images of animals getting clubbed to death.

Cooper Union's new academic building "is a genuine triumph,a canny exercise in architectural multilingualism"

At Time magazine, Richard Lacayo weighs in on the the still-pretty-new Cooper Union academic building...and here we go:

The East Village is a New York City neighborhood with a complicated vibe. It's a place where restaurant equipment wholesalers and ancient brick walk-ups rub shoulders with spanking new condo towers and hip hotels with signature martinis. Almost everywhere there are also traces of the hippie-Boho culture that settled in before the 1960s and does what it can to keep its flag flying.

Yes, yes...

It's difficult to insert a new building into those streets and get it to speak to so many different contexts. The ideal combination of grit and elegance, muscle and intellect is hard to arrive at, and over the last four or five years some local projects by name architects have gotten it wrong. But Cooper Union's new academic building, which opened this fall, is a genuine triumph, a canny exercise in architectural multilingualism.

Permanent Brunch branding: Introducing the Burger

Permanent Brunch on First Avenue is now known as Permanent Brunch & Burger, as Grub Street said it would be. Think they'll serve a bacon burger?

Former Baluchi's space turning Japanese

The Baluchi's Indian eatery on Second Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street will soon be this...

E2E4's private, gated drive gets plowed

Or at least shoveled yesterday morning for those residents who likely don't live here yet.



Perhaps enough room for a toy car.



On Saturday, the 15-stories of condo at East Fourth Street and the Bowery were starting to feel a little homey.



Previously.

Plump Dumpling opens in new location

The Plump Dumpling has opened at its new location on 11th Street and Second Avenue...just steps from its former space. At the former Citi-Spaces office. Hope the Plump owners paint over that color combo...




Previously on EV Grieve:
A short history of Citi-Spaces at Second Avenue and 11th Street

Marshal law at former Citi-Spaces location

More signs for U2/2U perhaps?

At the mammoth three-story karaoke/billiards/gourmet deli palace Friday afternoon, when the Cafe Hanover was supposed to open. It was still not open as of yesterday.



Previously on EV Grieve:
2U (or U2) Karaoke is now open on St. Mark's Place; Hanover Cafe coming soon

Cooper Union retail space back on the market

The retail space at the new Cooper Union is back on the market.



It served as the information center for Performa 09, which ran through Nov. 22.



And what happened to all that wood?



And I wonder if anyone ever claimed the free couch...

White night

Thanks to EV Grieve reader ~evilsugar25 for sharing these excellent photos from last night's storm of the century/decade/year.

Getting into the true spirit of the holidays

At the Post today, V.A. Musetto takes a break from writing about Asian film starlets to discuss three must-see Christmas slasher flicks: "Black Christmas," "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and "You Better Watch Out." As V.A. notes:

John Waters says "You Better Watch Out" is "the best seasonal film of all time." He adds: "I wish I had kids. I'd make them watch it every year and, if they didn't like it, they'd be punished."

And a merry Christmas to you, John.

The morning after

Life on Mars today

Life on Mars debuts today at the Mars Bar. NYPress caught up with co-curator Grimace, who discussed whether the artwork will change the endearing atmosphere in Mars Bar:

Artwork has always been a very strong element of the look and feel as well as the patrons of Mars Bar. Throughout its 25-year history, many artists such as Basquiat, Keith Haring and Lee Quinones have spent time here, and today many of the people that hang out here and even the bartenders are artists as well. If you focus your eyes in the dim Marsian light, you can always see a ton of art everywhere in Mars Bar. There are canvases behind the bar, custom paintings on the walls, windows and outside. This combined with the history of Mars Bar, the Old-New-York feel that is impossible to get almost anywhere in downtown Manhattan, and very special regulars that have been patrons of Mars Bar for years with many stories to tell, along with the raw art, make the entire bar a living, breathing, drinking art piece on it’s own. This is not something that can ever be re-created in a stuffy Chelsea gallery.

Related:
hijinks and shenanigans at Mars Bar.. (Slum Goddess)