EV Grieve

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Dumpster of the Day

St. Mark's Place, between 1st Avenue and Avenue A.

Monday, June 16, 2008

On it!

Well, at least when we get this darn truck working again...

Confusion and discord gave way to handshakes on Sunday as Gov. David A. Paterson and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg agreed on a deal authorizing the state to take over the city’s Off-Track Betting Corporation while still granting the city a share of gambling revenues.
The agreement allows the city’s 68 OTB parlors to open on Monday, averting a shutdown the mayor had threatened for Sunday that would have put hundreds of people out of work.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

More Yunnies out to destroy the past

Catching up on some reading...saw this discouraging item in Scoopy's Notebook in The Villager this week:

Sign of the times: A decades-old mural of the neighborhood in the Brevoort East’s lobby at 20 E. Ninth St. will be removed if the building’s co-op board has its way. Word is that the building’s board is made up of “a group of young people who are focused on modernizing the lobby.” Yet, we hear there’s “considerable opposition among shareholders,” a core of whom would like to keep the artwork. The mural was created in the early 1960s and is a depiction of Village life at the turn of the century, featuring the Washington Square Arch and lower Fifth Ave. “Since this mural is clearly visible from the street, I believe that its removal should be of interest to the general Village community,” one co-op owner e-mailed us. “I have lived in the Village my entire life and know that residents of this community oppose unnecessary changes that diminish the historic nature of this unique community.”

[FYI -- The artwork above is not the mural in question...just the flier for the musical from 1924]

New to the Yunnies?

Post scribe thinks turmoil in Africa is so trendy in the news right now!

Page Six Magazine, which is FREE every Sunday in the New York Post -- you just have to pay $1 for the paper! -- has several doozies today. First, there's a "trends" piece titled "The Sex Effect." You see, there's a recent release called Sex and the City that seems to be very popular. More than that, "anything Carrie Bradshaw touches turns to gold." Indeed! For instance, the $885 Hangisi shoe that Big used to propose to Carrie has sold out from New York stores! (Sixty pairs were sold the day the film opened on May 30; there is now a 400-name waiting list for them!) Also, the New York Public Library, where Carrie planned her dream wedding, is apparently the new Perry Street townhouse. According to the article, "throngs of tourists have made a pilgramage to the steps where Carrie was" [EV Grieve edited out the last word so not to ruin the movie for anyone who may actually want to see it, but you really shouldn't].

Then there's the column called "The Socializer" by "woman-about-town" Kelly Killoren Bensimon. She wants to be a real-life Angelina Jolie (or something) and see Africa. You just have to read her column for yourself. (Click on the image for a better view.) Content from the magazine is not online.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night -- in pictures

Here are a few photos from last night's protest that started in front of the Bowery Wine Co. I was only able to stay for the first leg of the protest, which, as Jeremiah reports, continued on to CBGB/Varvatos, the Bowery Hotel, 47 E. 3rd St., then down to Avenue A, through Tompkins Square Park, and finished at the Christodora House. His Flickr pool is here. Bob Arihood was also with the group the entire time. He took many compelling photos, as usual. (Check out my videos from the Bowery Wine Co. here.)

A little back story here.

Friday, June 13, 2008

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night

Here are a few videos from the Bowery Wine Company protest tonight. (Apologies if they look as shaky and grainy as Cloverfield. Still learning the ways of the camera.) Not sure how much narrative you need, though I'll likely add some later...The fellow in the first and third video was the lone dissenter. He kept yelling "pussies go home." He also repeated, "We're republicans, and we're here to stay!" No word yet whether he was an official representative of the New York Young Republican Club.

As I note in the post above this, I was only able to stay for the first leg of the protest, which, as Jeremiah reports, continued on to CBGB/Varvatos, the Bowery Hotel, 47 E. 3rd St., then down to Avenue A, through Tompkins Square Park, and finished at the Christodora House. His Flickr pool is here. Bob Arihood was also with the group the entire time. He took many compelling photos, as usual.

For the weekend: Seven songs

Alex at Flaming Pablum passed along this music meme to, uh, me. Here's the deal:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

My list seemed fitting to include here. For starters, I just entertained my 21-year-old nephew for a few days here. He's really into Britpop now, and wanted to know more about great New York bands. Of course, I quickly got out the album that started it all here: Vampire Weekend!

[Ducking beer bottles being thrown my way...]

For real though, I went about trying to give him a variety of New York bands. Yes, some are obvious. But it's a good place to start with a 21-year-old whose mother's favorite band is the Monkees.

In any event, since we played these songs the other day, I've continued to listen to them -- making these my favorite songs right now. (Ask me tomorrow, and...)

Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby