Another Grimace sighting in the East Village

A few weeks back Jeremiah noted the presence of Grimace out front of McDonald's at First Avenue...(Bob Arihood also got a nice shot of the mascot...)


[Photo via JVNY]

And then, the other night in the restroom (the one on the left) at Mars Bar...



Which reminds me that I heard a good Mars Bar restroom story the other day. Just need to remember the details...

A view toward the Williamsburg Bridge circa 1913

Was poking around Shorpy.com when I found this photo... Summer 1913. "Bird's eye view of N.Y.C. from roof of Consolidated Gas Building." George Grantham Bain Collection.

It's looking to the south east... if you click on the image, then you can see some familar landmarks...such as Tompkins Square Park and the two old steeples at St. Brigid's...I keep staring at it and finding something different...

But how will we know what reality show to watch or strip club to hit?

As the Times reports:

[F]or the month of January, Show Media, a Las Vegas company that owns about half the cones adorning New York City’s taxis, has decided to give commerce a rest. Instead, roughly 500 cabs will display a different kind of message: artworks by Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz and Yoko Ono.

The project is costing Show Media about $100,000 in lost revenue, but John Amato, one of Show’s owners and a contemporary-art fan, said: “I thought it was time to take a step back. January’s a slow month. I could have cut my rates but instead I decided to hit the mute button and give something back to the city.”

Uh, gee, thanks?

Santacar back in the East Village on Christmas night

After delivering presents to the eligible 378 million* children in the world (roughly 91.8 million homes), Santa was back driving around in the East Village last night in his Santacar. He looks surprisingly refreshed and clean for having climbed down 91.8 million chimneys.



Thanks to EV Grieve reader Cheryl for this Santacar photo....

* estimated

Bring out your dead...trees

It appears some folks are getting a headstart on the city's annual MulchFest, which usually happens the second weekend of the new year... Late yesterday afternoon, a pile of abandoned Christmas trees appeared in Tompkins Square Park...



Though, on closer inspection (yes, I actually inspected them, kind of), the trees appear to be the leftovers from the lot on Second Avenue and 10th Street...

Things that were closed on Christmas

The McDonald's on First Avenue near Sixth Street.

Fly away

Not ELO, but The Motors.

Things to do today

Seventh Street, 9:36 a.m., Dec. 25

Second Avenue, 9:21 a.m., Dec. 25

Hope that they were on sale.

So this is Christmas....

Christmas Eve blockbusters -- Cooper Square Hotel in default on $52 million in loans: report

The Real Deal has the blockbuster:

A German bank claims the developers of the year-old sleek 21-story Cooper Square Hotel in the East Village are in default on $52 million in loans, at the same time the building owes millions to contractors.

Not only is the project in financial distress, but developers and investors in the 145-room hotel at 25 Cooper Square at East 5th Street could owe as much as $6 million in personal guarantees, the recent lawsuit says.

Commercial lender WestLB filed to foreclose on $52 million in loans given to Cooper Square Hotel, Cooper Square Mezz Lender and seven individuals including the hotel's co-developer Matthew Moss and real estate investor Kyle Ransford, a lawsuit filed Dec. 14 in New York State Supreme Court says.

Walking on 14th Street: Nordstrom setting a date; Baked by Melissa and Subway coming soon

Maybe I should walk on 14th Street near Union Square more often. Or not.

Noticed that a Baked By Melissa shop is coming to 14th Street just east of Fifth Avenue. She bakes tiny cupcakes.



You know that the Nordtrom Racked store is opening at the former Virgin Megastore location... Now a date has been set for the opening: May 11, 2010. (And will they actually make that date?)



And the city's 8,976th Subway is opening right along the Chipotle and Bravo Pizza in the Zeckendorf Towers on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street.



EV Grieve reader Nowooski pointed this out the other day...

Time to toss the tree already?

Jeez, I usually wait until Christmas morning to chuck the Grieve tree.

On Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Speaking of trees....

Plenty left on Second Avenue in front of the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery...



You'll likely be able to get a bargain seeing as they're throwing all the dead trees in a pile...

Things to do this holiday that involve watching movies

For your holiday movie viewing pleasure, consider EV Grieve favorite "Blast of Silence," the black-hearted NYC noir from 1961... it concerns a hitman on assignment in New York City during the Christmas holidays... and Bad Boy Frankie Bono really hates Christmas. And cities. And pretty much everything.

To the trailer...



While here, Frankie stays at the Valencia Hotel on St. Mark's Place (now the St. Mark's Hotel)...



Thanks to EV Grieve reader Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk for this screenshot...

On my list, there's Martin Scorsese's first film, "Who's That Knocking at my Door," whose opening scene is on a stretch of Houston that you may recognize...



Thanks to the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG, of course) for passing this along via Smart Crew.

And as a P.S., an old stuffy favorite, "Weekend at the Waldorf."

Things to do this holiday season (or any other day): Go to Ray's

When you're out and about this holiday season, stop by Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... the food is tasty...and...

...business isn't so good. As Slum Goddess noted:

He cut the price of his Belgian "Obama" waffles to $2.00..Don't know if it was the right thing to do..but his business is slow...PLEASE go there and support Ray's Candy Store..If he closes Avenue A will have lost an icon..

And Scoopy reported this week...

[H]e said, this is the first time since he bought the hole-in-the-wall store in 1974 that he’s never paid his rent on the first of the month. "They might throw me out," he said matter of factly. "If I work alone — no girls, no help — I will make $100 a day and pay my rent. ... And if lose my store, I lose my apartment, too. This is my only income, and it’s too cold to collect cans." He wasn’t kidding.

Also, according to Bob Arihood, look for some new coffee products soon at Ray's...

And now, my collection of the newish American Apparel ads

The dialogue balloon coming from her rear says, "Hello my name is objectified flesh..."

Sorry to ruin your holidays

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A

Back in the fall, we devoted several posts to Chico's "spay/neuter" mural on Avenue A near 12th Street that was painted over for a Kobe Bryant video game ad.

Interestingly enough, Media magazine reported on the story. (Thanks to the reporter, Christine Champagne, who reached out to me for the article.) Here are portions of the piece (you can find the whole thing right here):

For nine years, cats and dogs loomed large over a parking lot on Avenue A as part of an iconic Advocates for Animals mural on the side of a tenement building in Manhattan's East Village. Created by well-known local muralist Chico, the mural tugged at the heartstrings with an assortment of animals — including a sweet kitty with pleading eyes and a trusty German Shepherd — urging local residents to spay and neuter their pets, and providing a number to call for assistance.

But the mural, which can be seen in the opening moments of the 2005 film "Winter Passing," was whitewashed this fall and replaced with an ad for 2K Sports' NBA 2K10 basketball video game, and now NBA superstar Kobe Bryant looms large on the wall.

For her part, Irene Muschel, a social worker and animal activist who runs Advocates for Animals, and hired Chico to paint the mural back in April 2000, didn't even know it had been covered up until MEDIA contacted her.

Muschel claimed that the landlord of 189 Avenue A, Desides Weinberg, was contractually obligated — "We had a legal contract drawn up by an attorney and signed by me, Chico and the landlord" — to keep the Animals for Advocates mural up for 10 years. If that's the case, the mural should have stayed in place until April 2010. "About a year ago, the landlord that signed the contract called me about how he needed income, and he said there was an advertiser who wanted to put something up there, and would I go along with it," Muschel recalls. "I said no, actually, and I had contacted a lawyer. But then it just faded away."

For his part, Weinberg repeatedly insisted that the contract Muschel speaks of was a "phony contract." He also faulted Muschel for not properly maintaining the mural, pointing out that chunks of it had fallen off the side of the building over the years.

One has to wonder: Did New York-based KD&E Advertising, which did the media buy for the NBA 2K10 campaign, realize the ad would replace a mural that had special meaning to East Village residents? KD&E did not return calls or respond to efforts made to reach someone at the agency on MEDIA's behalf by a representative for 72andsunny, the creative agency on the campaign.

Muschel says she is not going to pursue the matter legally or otherwise, instead choosing to focus on the good the mural did. "The mural helped a great many animals get spayed and neutered and provided answers on a wide variety of animal issues to people who called," she muses. "It did its work."

Previously on EV Grieve:
NBA ad takes over

New bar coming to 14-16 Avenue B

Back in September, we reported that a new bar/restaurant was coming to the corner of Avenue B and Second Street. We were told then by a worker on the scene that the wall between the two vacant storefronts at 14 Avenue B and 16 Avenue B will be torn down... and the spaces will be combined.



It looked as if someone was working on whatever that bar used to be called at 14 Avenue B...



And now, something called BKLYN Local Draft LLC is looking for a full liquor license at 14 Avenue B before the CB3/SLA folks at their Jan. 11 meeting. The current liquor license for 14 Avenue B is inactive.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New bar/restaurant for lower Avenue B?

Also on the liquor license docket: PJ Hanley's new pizza parlor coming to 122 First Ave.

Also on the CB3/SLA liquor license agenda on Jan. 11.... The incoming pizza parlor from the PJ Hanley's folks is looking for a full liquor license at 122 First Ave.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors!: Will PJ Hanley's be opening a pizza shop on First Avenue?

A Stop Work Order for the P.J. Hanley's pizza parlor on First Avenue

Also on the liquor license docket: Sigmund Pretzel Shop

Sigmund's, the new gourmet pretzel shop at 29 Avenue B near Third Street, is applying for a license to serve wine ... which is fine (heh, rhymes)... but how about some beer for those pretzels? And has anyone been here yet? Just curious what this place is like...

Updated:

Food blogger (and EV Grieve reader) BaHa paid a visit to Sigmund's last month... She wrote about it at her site, With Leftovers. Briefly though, she said: "These babies are pretzels at their best."


Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue B's pretzel logic