Sex and the recession

So, apparently, New York City is still being marketed in the Sex and the City manner in which this ad suggests:



Hot pink! A martini glass! Good times! All is well! Spend money!

Anyway, I'm glad a little reality worked its way into the top left-hand corner of the Cemusa ad on Second Avenue near St. Mark's....

Robin Raj finally makes the move, though there's no sign of the cartoon ham

We finally have some closure on one of the most important news stories of our lifetime(s): Robin Raj has now move into their comfy new digs at 114 Third Ave.



Meanwhile, in one of those good news/bad news scenarios, the RR honchos saw fit to continue with their cartoon food motif. Good!:




Bad: Unfortunately, though, there was no sign of our our favorite food toon: the delightful ham. Sadly, the sign featuring the ham (or is that beef? Whatever!) still sits neglected at their old location two doors down at 14th Street.



Click here for one of the 4,500 previous Robin Raj posts on EV Grieve.

Now open: Coyi Cafe on Avenue B

Coyi Cafe on Avenue B near Third Street.

An article about "Life on Marzzzzzz" and people who tend to romanticize the city of the gritty ’70s and wonder if those days lie ahead

Sounds boring to me! I want to go shopping! Still, if you must. "Life on Marzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" returns to the telly on Wednesday night after a hiatus...and the Times today takes a really loooooong look at the show set, in part, in the gritty 1973 NYC, and wonders..."[W]ill people continue to do so when the city feels as if it could be slipping back into those dangerous, crime-ridden days? In other words, will these people still want to look back at this era — fondly or otherwise — as the New York of 2009 increasingly comes to resemble its ’70s-era ancestor in all the wrong ways?

How about more Gretchen Moll? Then we'll looking back fondly. Or something. To the article!

“The image of New York is important to New Yorkers, and it’s part of their self-image,” said Jonathan Mahler, the author of the 2006 book “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City.”

Many people who stuck with the city through tougher times now feel that they have a stake in its continued prosperity, and, he said, “are now sticking out their chests a little bit. ‘Yeah, I may be living in this little studio apartment, but I’m making it and I’m surviving here.’ ”

Not that New York was utterly beyond redemption in these bygone years: As a kind of modern-day frontier town, Mr. Mahler said, it was teeming with peril, but also with frantic energy and with havens where experimental subcultures could flourish.

“As parts of the city became abandoned and forgotten, they would be taken up by these urban pioneers who would use them for their own purposes and create interesting things there,” he said, pointing to the gay culture of the West Village, the punk rockers of the East Village and the nascent art scene in SoHo, all of which emerged during those years.

Mr. Mahler added, however, that that the 1970s were not in any way a better decade to be living in the city. “I’m much happier to be living here and raising my family in New York now,” he said. “Or at least I could have said that six months ago.”

AND:

AS the New York of today continues to look more like its unsavory 1973 self — a declining economy, upticks in violent crimes like murder and bank robbery and an ever more crumbling infrastructure starved for resources — it remains to be seen whether the romantic feelings of the “Life on Mars” creators (and its viewers) will endure. After all, who wants to turn on a television and be reminded of the bad old days when evidence of bad new days can be seen right outside your window?

Appreciating fire escapes

Also in the Times today, an appreciation of fire escapes with a shot of one on East Fifth Street.

Although many of the fire escapes built during New York’s second wave of immigration still exist, these well-worn structures have been lamentably overlooked. Even the venerable Encyclopedia of New York City neglects to give them a separate entry. Perhaps it’s time for New Yorkers to give these old cultural symbols a second look.

Appreciating the photography of Laura Levine

Rockcritics.com has a three-part Q-and-A with Laura Levine, the renowned photographer whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Trouser Press, Musician, Rolling Stone and New York Rocker.

As Rockcritics.com notes: "Levine’s photography resumé reads like a Who’s Who of those loopy years following punk and disco: from early snaps of Prince and Madonna (pre-world domination) to photogenic weirdos like Captain Beefheart, August Darnell (a.k.a. Kid Creole), and Bow Wow Wow’s Annabella Lwin to No Wave shit disturbers D.N.A. and Glenn Branca to new romantic mop-fops Yazoo to rap icons Run-D.M.C. and Afrika Bambaata to hardcore visionaries Black Flag and X to… well, you get the picure." Indeed.

Charlie Kaufman does a lot of press. Now that we got that out of the way...

Here's a video of David Poland interviewing writer/director Charlie Kaufman about Synecdoche, New York. (Which happens to be Jeremiah Moss' favorite film of 2008). I love the first three minutes of this interview. Or so. And the film is on DVD March 10.



Via Goldenfiddle.

Did Sid really kill Nancy? Maybe not! (Says new film)

The Daily Mail has the story...about a new film called Who Killed Nancy? So, maybe Sid didn't actually kill Nancy some 30 years ago at the Hotel Chelsea...To the article!

Its makers claim to have uncovered evidence which reveals that a series of police blunders and apathy by detectives led the authorities wrongly to pin the blame on the star.

In fact, the film contests, medical tests carried out on Vicious at the time of his arrest showed the musician would have been incapable of the attack, because he was out cold at the time after taking so much of a powerful sedative that it would have killed all but the most hard-bitten drug users.

Instead, the film Who Killed Nancy? asserts for the first time that 20-year-old Spungen, the daughter of a wealthy middle-class Philadelphia family, was killed by another resident at the hotel - a shadowy British man named Michael, who spent that last fatal night in the room with the couple.

As the murderer robbed and killed Spungen for the huge stash of cash they kept there, Vicious, it is claimed, slept through the attack, only waking to find his lover's dead body in the morning.

The documentary's British director, Alan G. Parker, who has spent 24 years investigating the life and death of the star and has written a series of well-received books on the subject, tracked down more than 180 witnesses and unearthed previously unseen police reports.

He also spoke to several witnesses who are adamant that Vicious was innocent. Crucially, Parker says police found the fingerprints of six people who had been in the couple's room at New York's rundown Chelsea Hotel in the early hours, but none was ever interviewed.

Here's the trailer...

When the system works: Longtime EV resident Richard Leck receives a proper burial

I recently posted a link to the Village Voice's obituary of longtime EV resident Richard Leck. Without any living relatives, there was concern that this veteran might be laid to rest in Potter's Field. Here's an update from the Voice:

Richard Leck, the East Village habitue whose death we reported two weeks ago, was buried today in Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island.

Leck, 75, a former soldier, died of heart disease on Dec. 19 without next of kin. His friends had contacted the Voice because they feared that he would end up in a pauper's grave.

But the city Medical Examiner, the Mayor's Office of Veteran's Affairs, the VA, and a coalition of veteran's groups got together in impressive speed and took care of the transportation and burial of his body.

In other words, the system worked. Kudos to them.

We wrote about Leck because he was one of that disappearing class of people who make the neighborhood colorful and interesting.

Valentine Six

Here's the wildly underrated Valentine Six. Later becoming Parker and Lily, another overlooked act. (Per allmusic.com: "Have been called the John Doe and Exene Cervenka of N.Y.C. angst pop.")

Get warm (and depressed)

Our friend Karate Boogaloo posted this preview of "Last Summer at Coney Island" over at Stupefaction. He has more details there...Meanwhile, get warm (and depressed, because this will likely all be gone) by taking a trip to the boardwalk and beach....

The Chocolate Wars (well, not at all, but we needed something that sounds CONTROVERSIAL)

In his Nabe News Wednesday, BoweryBoogie included a link to my post on Bespoke Chocolates opening shop on Extra Place. Rachel Zoe Insler, the owner of Bespoke, left him the following comment. Which he reposted in a post. Anyway! Here's BB....and Rachel:

Rachel Zoe Insler, owner of the new Bespoke Chocolates set to open on Extra Place, wants to set the record straight. Her message is clear, don't bemoan Bespoke! Per a comment received earlier this morning:

Hi! I'm the owner of Bespoke...I specifically left the opening date so open-ended because the fiery hoops you have to jump through to open a small business (especially in a corporate-owned building) in New York City will never cease to amaze me. It's been months trying to get the appropriate permits to install a sink. Anyway, we'll be open soon enough, and I'm hoping that my small, independently owned shop making handmade products manages to make more people happy than it does horrifically offended. Cheers, Rachel P.S. EVGrieve: where's your sense of humor? "Charming" is a joke!

She also responded to his post:

You're speedy! Thanks for posting. If I ever get my damn doors open, please come by for a chocolate and a chat!

I've lived on East First between First and Second for a few years now. I love the East Village and I'm excited to be part of a long history of unique small businesses.

To be clear: I am not trying to say that people shouldn't prefer things "the way they were." Bemoan me all you want; a little controversy is hard to come by when you make chocolate anyway. :)

But I am asking that folks give me a chance and at least let me open my doors before deciding that I am going to be a detriment to the neighborhood. Remember: CBGB's was once a new business. So was Moshe's Bakery.

Times are tough, and small locally owned businesses need all the support they can get, lest Extra Place be filled with six more Chase Banks. I'm proud of my handmade products and the fact that I can create a few new jobs for New Yorkers.

I will yield your blog back to you now, thanks. :)

I'll have more to say on this tomorrow in the first installment of my 12-part series, "How Bespoke Chocolates singlehandedly ruined the East Village."

Heh. But seriously! I'm all for small, locally owned businesses...and I'm happy to hear that she lives in -- and appreciates -- the neighborhood. This place aside....generally speaking, with the proliferation of FroYo places and the comings-and-goings on Dessert Row, the Momofuku's Bakery & Milk Bars of the neighborhood, and what not, I have to admit I feel a little desserted out. And annoyed when the SATC crowd shows up to eat said desserts. In any event, we do wish her all the best with her new store.

Save the date/reminder

Photographer/filmmaker Nathan Kensinger -- an EV Grieve favorite -- has a new show opening tomorrow night at 7 at Union Docs called "Abandoned Brookyn."

Martha Stewart to help drive up rents on East 10th Street

First Anthony Bourdain, now this....The New York Post brings us this item today:

FORGET 46th Street - Martha Stewart has crowned a new Restaurant Row.

In a four-part restaurant tour kicking off Monday on "The Martha Stewart Show" (11 a.m., Ch. 4), the domestic diva is visiting a quartet of tiny downtown eateries on E. 10th Street.

"I have never been on a street anywhere in New York where restaurant after restaurant is just so, so good," says Stewart, citing "diverse" menus and "fantastic" prices as reasons for her latest foodie obsession.

Hmm-mmm.

While E. 10th Street seems to be edgier territory than Stewart's usual four-star stomping grounds, this funky strip popular with college kids and night crawlers isn't such a big departure for Stewart.

"She's just as game to be in the East Village as she is uptown," says [Stewart supervising producer Lisa] Wagner. "She has her favorite places - it's not always Nobu."