THIS is the Bowery that I miss!

A CLASSIC! (And it's APPROVED by Bela Lugosi's estate!)

Here's how allmovie descibes this 1942 CLASSIC:

Bowery at Midnight casts Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner, a psychology instructor at New York University (which looks a lot like Berkeley in the exterior shots!). When not enlightening his students — most of them buxom Monogram starlets — Brenner is engaged in charitable work, running a mission in the Bowery. In truth, however, the kindly professor is a fiend in human form, who uses his mission as a front for a vast criminal empire. When Judy (Wanda McKay), one of Brenner's students, stumbles onto the truth, she's targeted for extermination by the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde prof.

Can't wait for the remake, in which the kindly NYU instructor is a fiend in human form who uses his mission as a front for a vast condo/hotel development! (I shouldn't joke...)

Anyway, someone on YouTube was nice enough to upload the entire 60-minute movie, though they disabled the embed function. So you'll need to go here to watch some of it. I highly recommend that you do.

I challenge them to work in "Octopussy"

Sean Connery continues to squabble with his neighbor on 71st Street. I only follow the story to see how the Post can work in a James Bond reference. For instance:

007 IN A FIX OVER TOWNHOUSE
By DAREH GREGORIAN

July 30, 2008
Sean Connery's downstairs neighbors are proving to be a bigger headache for the former James Bond than Dr. No, Blofeld and Goldfinger combined.


'HOUSE ARREST' AT THE CONNERYS'
By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and CHUCK BENNETT
July 26, 2008
Sean Connery's family nemesis - his neighbor "Dr. No" - was at it again yesterday.

JUDGE POINTS 'SCOLD' FINGER
CONNERY & FOE SPANKED
By DAREH GREGORIAN
MOLD FINGER:Dr. Burton Sultan (left) accuses Sean Connery of causing water leaks and other mayhem at their East Side condo.
December 27, 2007
A Manhattan judge has had enough of a court feud between Sir Sean Connery and his neighbor, and is urging the James Bond star and his arch-enemy Dr. Sultan to make peace.

JUDGE SAYS DR. NO TO 'BOND' SUIT
By DAREH GREGORIAN
December 30, 2006 -- Even at 76, the original James Bond can still take down his archenemies.

Bonus!
James Bond billboards in Times Square:





Unrelated but, c'mon, it's funny...What a crew: Dick Van Dyke and Connery in a hep stache meet Queen Elizabeth II at the You Only Live Twice premiere.

Tour buses continue to remind us of awful summer movies

On lower Broadway, July 29.

East Village 1988: "A Neighborhood of Vigorous Opinions"

[Photo by dmax3270 via Flickr]

Gertrude Briggs, 77, has been selling used art, dance, and literary books at her store, Books 'n' Things, for 41 years, most recently from a stuffy little shop on East Seventh street that has books stacked to the ceiling or in boxes.
''Most of the creative people have been displaced,'' she said, as she closed a sale with a customer from the Bronx. ''Of course it still attracts a lot of freaks, because it's still a place you can be free. For a lot kids, coming here is a way to get away from the choking atmosphere of suburbia.''
''It's almost like geographical determinism -- he gravitates here because he has no choice,'' offered the customer, who identified himself only as Carlos. ''That's what attracted me in the first place when I was going through my Marxist phase. The flyers, the posters, the cracking peeling walls -- it's a glimpse of Old Amsterdam, of Old New York.''

(From an Aug. 13, 1988, New York Times article titled The Talk of the East Village; A Neighborhood of Vigorous Opinions)

"every time i look at this photograph, i want to cry..."

That headline is part of the caption to this photo from 1987: "Astor Place looking west towards the subway and restaurant...every time i look at this photograph, i want to cry..." The photo was taken by dmax3270. Check out his other black-and-white photos from NYC in the 1980s and early 1990s on his Flickr page. You can see another one of his photos in the above post.

Commoners have nerve to use dumpster in front of new building that will be reserved for wealthier people

On East Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: Bag searches (oh, and a movie)

More bag searches in store for tonight's movie presentation in the Park?

As for the movie, it's Better off Dead.  An American classic. (Oh, c'mon -- just give me this one...)

"How to not be a douchebag tourist in NYC"

That's the headline to a post on joshinthecity, a blog by a 36-year-old Sydney, Australia, resident. He starts: "I didn’t write this, but do the right thing, read up. As someone who has spent quite a bit of time there over the years, trust me.. ALL of this rings true."

Among the advice for tourists that he's passing along:

Dress: First, don’t f**king wear Crocs, don’t let anyone you’re with wear Crocs and don’t tell anybody you own a pair back home. They’re uglier than pretty much anything else in the city, and that’s saying something. New Yorkers don’t wear shorts and only chicks wear sandals, so stick with long pants, jeans, and dark color shirts–light colored button-downs are ok–dress shoes or Nike Dunks. Avoid Hawaiian shirts and NASCAR apparel like your life depends on it. Pastels suck, and fanny packs and passport lanyards scream “douche” from a block away.

Don’t stand in groups at street corners, subway entrances or in front of doors. Basically, just make sure you’re not in anybody’s way, ever, and you’ll be good to go.

Oh, and don’t ask us to pick you up or take you to the airport. We have plenty of cabs, trains and buses to do that for us, and we don’t want to, anyway.

Update: It was written by Andrew at Hunter College in a post that appeared last Thursday.

EV Grieve Etc. -- the economy is doomed edition

From an op-ed by in today's Post by Nicole Gelinas, a Manhattan Institute fellow:

Our elected leaders have been making long-term spending commitments as if Wall Street would never slow for more than a year or two. But the industry now faces its worst crisis in decades. The city and state must drastically change their approach -- or this crisis could turn into a longterm disaster.

Also: Gov. Paterson will deliver a grim economic address at 5:10 p.m. today in the state Capitol. The speech will be broadcast live on NY1.

Will need to buy the right outfit for this!

Signs that the economy is really bad

The ATMs don't work anymore.


People throw away their luggage because they can't afford to travel.

People can't afford to fix their nice cars.

Park Avenue residents subjected to white bread.

Revisiting the decline of New York City

As you can see, the Sept. 17, 1990, issue of Time had this cover story, The Rotting of the Big Apple.

Excerpt:

Skyrocketing real estate prices (a one-room apartment that rents for $800 a month is considered a bargain) have driven middle-class families out of Manhattan and are threatening the creative enterprises that make the island a cultural oasis. Twenty years ago, about 50 or 60 new productions opened on Broadway each year. Today soaring costs have driven the price of an orchestra seat to $60, and a healthy season yields no more than 35 new shows, only 12 of which are deemed successes. In dance alone, New York lost 55 world-class studios in the past four years. Others, including Martha Graham Dance, are considering following the example of the Joffrey Ballet by establishing second and third homes in other cities. That means a shorter season in New York. "This is the most expensive, difficult and competitive city for arts organizations," says David Resnicow, president of the Arts and Communications Counselors, which arranges sponsorships for corporations and cultural institutions. "You don't have to be in New York to make it. "

Full article here.

Hooters and Red Mango

This thought crossed my mind when I saw the Red Mango sign in the window of the former CBGB T-shirt shop the other day: What if someone is just fucking with us?

Remember when jokesters put the Hooters sign in the window of the recently shuttered Second Avenue Deli back in February 2006? Lordy, had I been doing this site at the time, there would have been around-the-clock-developing-breaking-exclusive coverage of the sign.

Well, maybe not. Anyway, Urban Prankster recently revisited the Hooters hoax.

As for Red Mango on St. Mark's, I'm afraid we really are in for more frozen yogurt.

If you're thinking about driving on: Beekman Street

Uh. Good luck. And you may want to throw it in four-wheel drive. (Also, I've always liked the sign for the Beekman, hidden there a bit on the right.)

The Dark Knight is gone

At least from Houston and the Bowery.

EV Grieve Etc.

With less than 18 months left in Mayor Bloomberg's final term, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is in a race against the clock to approve historic designations for more than 1,000 buildings. (NY Post)

The Gov. has grim news: get ready for the worst economy in decades

According to today's Post anyway:

Gov. Paterson, convinced the state faces its worst fiscal crisis since the mid-1970s, will deliver the grim news in an unprecedented special address to New Yorkers as soon as tomorrow night, The Post has learned.
The governor's address - which his aides hope will be televised by public and cable news stations - will say that plunging state revenues will force painful cuts in state services, necessitate a reduction in the state work force, possibly through layoffs, and require other difficult economic measures, source said.

The city's kitty is also doomed as doomed can be. 

Which makes this tie-in so perfect! Let's go out and buy expensive Depression-era clothes!



The duds say it all - and it's depressing.
Taking a cue from the grim economy, this fall's fashions at Banana Republic, Gap and H&M are featuring a distinctly Depression-era trend of cloche hats, pencil skirts, conductor caps and baggy, vintage-style dresses.
One of the most popular styles appears to hark back to the impish, newsboy getup of the 1930s: baggy trousers, caps, pinstriped vests, oxford lace-up shoes and utilitarian handbags.
"We associate the newsboy look with urban poverty - street kids of the 1930s," said Daniel James Cole, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
"Given that we're in an unstable economy and an uncertain political landscape, it's possible that a retro style has come back as a way to connect with our heritage."

Now. Let's seize the day!

And now for something new and different on St. Mark's

Alternate headline: You've got to be fucking kidding me.
At the site of the old CBGB shop. (Surprised someone isn't calling this yogurt place Punk Berry.) I even made a joke on March 29 that this location would become a yogurt shop. So I guess this is my fault.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tourists will have to go online to buy their CBGB T-shirts

Important decisions of our time

What's new on Avenue C?

Bao 111 at 111 Avenue C closed up shop at the end of February because of escalating rents...(Get this: the owner planned to move to the west side because it was less expensive.)

Anyway, the new owners are renovating the space, with hopes of opening by the end of the summer. They were very cordial, and told me it will be a restaurant featuring French-Carribbean fare.

Meanwhile, as the sign reads, Barnyard is open (last Tuesday was its first day, in fact), a high-end cheese and meat shop at 149 Avenue C just north of Ninth Street.

Free punk show in Tompkins Square Park Sunday

More fun to come next Saturday and Sunday.

Suzannah B. Troy has much more on the show. Bob Arihood has many excellent photos here.

EV Grieve FYI

From the Times:

THE Manhattan co-op market has just set a sales record, according to brokers briefed on the sale.
Jonathan Tisch, the chairman and chief executive of Loews Hotels, closed this month on the purchase of a sprawling 14-room co-op facing Central Park, for $48 million, the brokers said. The apartment is on the 11th floor at 2 East 67th Street, one of the monuments to luxury living designed by Rosario Candela in the 1920s.

Wow. Just $8 million more than what the Yankees gave Carl Pavano.

The rich want Bloomberg for a third term

According to today's Post:

Big Apple business honchos want four more years of Mayor Bloomberg -- and are preparing to do whatever it takes to help him stay in City Hall for a third term.

Sources close to the mayor say his deep-pocketed pals are "aggressively pushing" him to run again - his term ends in December 2009 - and are strategizing on how to change term-limits law to make it happen.

"We believe it's very feasible," said one source. "If he decides to run again, there are people who want him, and those people are planning to do everything they can. It is a very, very strong movement."

[Image via New York Post]

Keeping the spirit alive

Yesterday afternoon on Fifth Street near Avenue A. Two signs leftover from the "let them eat cake" protest from July 11.

A message for the kids

On the door at St. Brigid's school.

Is it July 27 yet?

Oh, good. That means it's time for the start of the second season of Mad Men, the AMC show about advertising in 1960s Manhattan...that is seemingly advertising everywhere around the city. Gawker had a post July 14 on the Mad Men subway-ad campaign.



(Coincidentally, at the time I saw the post, Mad Men was up on the site's ad rotation.)


Meanwhile, if you like the show, Gridskipper posted a handy-dandy guide to Mad Men locales in the city last year. (And can a Mad Men tour for tourists be too far behind...?)

[Images on Gawker -- Flickr via Thighs Wide Shut]

That sound you hear is EV Grieve scrapping the bottom of the barrel to find mid-1980s footage of Times Square

It's Huey Lewis! And the News! Howard Johnson's in all it's neon glory at the 38-second point.

Too many people got Carrie-d (groan, sorry) away on the stoop

According to this week's issue of The Villager (via Jeremiah):

Call it “Stoop and the Groupies.”

With the May film release of “Sex and the City,” flocks of female fans of the show once again are pouring into narrow Perry St. in Greenwich Village. But as waves of women visit the front steps of the imaginary home of Carrie Bradshaw, tempers in the community have begun to flare.

Visitors are lured to the area by the fictional lives of the characters created for the popular TV series. They sit for photos on “Carrie’s stoop” and shop in local boutiques. They wait on line for cupcakes at nearby Magnolia Bakery, then sit outdoors eating them on a nearby bench — just like Carrie and Miranda did.

For the show’s fans, at least, it seems a picture-perfect ritual. Yet, in the sweltering heat of summer, some neighbors are resenting all the ruckus and seeking an end to “Sex and the City” tours on their streets.

Last week, residents won a reprieve, when, on July 15, the largest of the tour operators, On Location Tours, announced it would take Perry St. off its route.

On this solemn occasion, I'd like to look back at this post from June 2:
These are a few of the photos you'll find when you search for "Carrie Bradshaw" on Flickr

A reminder of artists who lived and worked in the LES

[Tom Warren, P.P.O.W. Gallery “Portrait/Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz,” at P.P.O.W.]

The Times had a review yesterday of two exhibits that I want to see.

HISTORY KEEPS ME AWAKE AT NIGHT
A Genealogy of Wojnarowicz
P.P.O.W.
555 W. 25th St., Chelsea
Through Aug. 22

SIDE X SIDE
La MaMa La Galleria
6 E. First St., East Village
Through Aug. 3

An excerpt of the review by Holland Cotter:

With the Lower East Side fast losing connections to its history as an alternative neighborhood for art and politics, two summer group shows remind us of artists who lived and worked there, and have, through example, passed its spirit on.

“History Keeps Me Awake at Night: A Genealogy of Wojnarowicz” at P.P.O.W. — a gallery that opened on East 10th Street in 1983 — focuses on David Wojnarowicz, the radical-minded artist, writer and East Village denizen who died of AIDS in 1992. Although the show has five pieces by him, its purpose is to map his continuing presence, and the work of younger artists assembled by the curators Photi Giovanis and Jamie Sterns, conveys varying degrees of influence and homage.

Possibly the most striking difference between Wojnarowicz’s Lower East Side and our own was the inescapable presence of AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. “Side x Side” at La MaMa La Galleria includes work by three Wojnarowicz contemporaries who died of the disease — Scott Burton (1939-1989), Nicolas Moufarrege (1947-1985) and Martin Wong (1946-1999) — and by two other artists, Kate Huh and Carrie Yamaoka, whose work registered its impact.

Newsflash: New York is expensive (aka, we're No. 1!)

According to Forbes:

New York City's got fashionable Fifth Avenue, trendy Tribeca and an oasis in Central Park. To enjoy those perks, residents pay up.
The Big Apple topped a new list of America's most expensive cities, with a measured cost of living surpassing that of Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C. The culprit? High rent: $4,500 a month on average for a two-bedroom, unfurnished luxury apartment.
Los Angeles comes in second place. Its residents can partly blame a long, expensive commute. The average driver there spends 72 hours a year stuck in traffic delays, and, as of July 21, the cost of a gallon of regular gas was $4.46.

To determine the U.S. cities where the cost of living is highest, the London office of Mercer, an American human resources consulting company, measured the prices of the same basket of goods in 253 of the world's cities. The basket is composed of over 200 products, representative of executive spending patterns and including everything from rent for a luxury apartment to the cost of a fast-food hamburger.
Location has a lot to do with why New York and Los Angeles top the list.
In New York, the need for more homes has been increasing since the mid-1970s, says Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard University.
"Before 1970," he says, "workers in some sense were paid a premium to live in New York." This, says Glaeser, was due to its reputation for crime and dirtiness. "Now, people pay a premium to live there."
The change happened when the city began to experience robust economic growth that's still occurring, despite some hiccups along the way. Even though business is increasingly global, New York is a center for industries that produce ideas, like finance and publishing, notes Glaeser.
"You don't see anyone relocating to South Dakota," he says. "The idea now is that you become smart by hanging around other smart people, which New York has in abundance. That's why it's been able to thrive."

Related:

Actually, New York is cheap (Curbed)

[Image via New York]

Inside Aubrey O'Day's apartment (for some reason)

I love when the New York Post takes us inside the homes of really famous celebrities!

In the paper's real-estate section on Thursday, we were treated to an inside look at the one-bedroom Midtown apartment of 24-year-old Aubrey O'Day. You know, she's in the pop band Danity Kane! (Yeah, me neither.) She's also starring now in Hairspray on Broadway!

But her apartment!

She chose an apartment not too far from the theater and right in the middle of just about everything else.
"I love this building," she says, in a soft voice that's a cross between Marilyn Monroe's and a Valley Girl's. "And I love being in Midtown. There are great sushi restaurants in the neighborhood, and I'm right across from Pinkberry."

The one-bedroom, one-bath apartment with a kitchen area measures 725 square feet, according to the building's management, but it looks smaller. If she feels cramped, O'Day isn't complaining.

"There are big closets," she says, "and I have tons of clothes. And there are lots of drawers and cabinets to put things in."
To offset the earth tones of the contemporary furnishings, O'Day brought in pink and orange pillows for "a bit of warm personality and excitement," she says. "I also brought in lots of flowers and candles and photos; there are tons of them all over my apartment. They're all of me and my friends and the different things my girl group has done. Some of them are magazine covers.

"My apartment smells really good," she adds. "I have tons of smelly stuff like perfumed sprays and scented candles. I love vanilla candles and lilac."

She also filled up one wall with photos of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

"They're real celebrities," O'Day says. "That's my favorite wall in the house. My favorite place in the house is my bed." But she's happiest, she says, when her dog, Ginger (a Teacup Maltese), is curled up on her doggie bed.

Another of O'Day's additions to the apartment is a big floor-length mirror where she puts on her makeup. "I'm definitely a makeup girl," she admits.

Aubrey O'Day's Favorite Things
* Her puppy, Ginger
* The flowers
* The wall of photos of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn
* Her personal photos
* Her bed

Time for a drink

(Actually, I've been drinking for hours!)



According to the caption: Unidentified men stand at the bar at the famous old Bowery saloon in New York City about 1905. The saloon is located at Doyer Street and Bowery Street. (AP Photo)

Sunday in the Park

Image via Neither More Nor Less...Bob has more details on the shows there too.

Kurtis Blow's anti-heroin public service announcement

Aired in New York City in the early 1980s, says the person who posted the clip on YouTube.

Bonus: Kurtis Blow for Sprite (1986)

Getting ready to ship out

According to the caption that accompanied this photo: Residents of a flophouse in New York's Bowery tidy themselves up for a cruise aboard the S.S. Delaware on Long Island Sound, July 21, 1936, guests of the Bowery Mission. (AP Photo/N.Y. Daily News)