Wednesday, January 28, 2009

An East Ninth Street vintage shop is closing

M Sonii, the vintage-y, knicknack-y store at 220 E. Ninth St. near Third Avenue that featured local designers...


is closing...



In 2000, The Village Voice named M Sonii the best accessory store.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Life on Laura Mars

Ah, the Bowery Boys do justice today to a long-lost (unintentionally hilarious!) NYC classic...The Eyes of Laura Mars from 1978. With Faye Dunaway fresh from winning an Oscar for Network. As the Bowery Boys put it:

As such, it seems a thin but playful satire of downtown New York decadence. Manhattan looks unusually great for such a commonplace horror flick. The best set is easily Mars' studio, in one of the Chelsea warehouses piers overlooking the Hudson River, just steps from the West Side elevated highway. The most notable -- and campy scene -- erupts at Columbus Circle, at a ridiculous fashion shoot involving burning cars and models in lingerie and fur coats. Oh Columbus Circle! Were you ever so fun?

You get a taste of Hell's Kitchen in a brisk chase scene involving Tommy Lee Jones' cop character, his feathered hair flapping in the wind. But seeing Soho was more striking to me, devoid of shopfronts, mysterious flat warehouses during the day that open to become large, disco-thumping galleries at night. There are still galleries in Soho, of course, but the one in 'Laura Mars' is a big, hokey circus. (The director even condescendingly throws in a dwarf, to get the point across.)


Here's a trailer/infomercial for the film....



And those memorable, uh, lines...

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



We'll be watching you, Haley Joel...or whoever the dastardly Penistrator probably really is! Our traps have been set. Oh, wait. No football tonight. Hmm.

Meanwhile, the Splash photo of Mr. Osment from the other day showed him in front of an apartment building marked 310...

That would be 310 E. 12th Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue...right in the heart of the recent trail of snowffiti.



Which means... absolutely nothing!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition



That New York Giants-fan-is-inconsolable video that too many people are talking about. (YouTube via that guy in my office who told me about it)

Is there a secret rum bar on St. Mark's Place? (NY Barfly via Grub Street)

Buy the mural at Veselka (Grub Street)

More on the "Vanishing City" extravaganza (Washington Square Park)

At the Fourth Street Food Co-op (East Village Podcasts)

So long to the smell and slippery white film of fat in the Meatpacking District (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Discussion questions on E. B. White's "Here is New York": Which of White's characterizations of the city are still applicable today? Which seem out of date? (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Not even toilet paper is recession-proof (AdAge)

Whirly-Girly action (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

The South Street Seaport Music Winter Fest starts Friday (Brooklyn Vegan)

A Richard Hell Obamicon (Stupefaction)

Dating a banker? (Esquared)

At the new Alice Tully Hall (The New Yorker)

PURE SPECULATION: Maybe people are stealing pets for the reward money?

Have you noticed how many missing pets signs there are around the neighborhood? A friend suggested that, perhaps, people were stealing pets in return for a reward...Maybe? Easy money in these difficult economic times, etc. He had no proof to back this up...He was just talking, but it was a rather chilly thought.






Stealing pets is hardly a new concept. In any event, whatever the reason for the disapperance, I hope these owners find their pets soon (if they haven't already).

T-shirt for tourists proof that bad old days are back?



And are they the bad old days of the 1970s or the 1980s? On Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport.

The Holland Bar may be open as soon as tomorrow! (Though you may not recognize much)


As we reported last week, the Holland Bar is set to reopen...very soon. The Times follows up today with confirmation the old joint on Ninth Avenue may be up and running by tomorrow. Golly. The Times talks with the bar's owner, Gary Kelly:

[L]ast summer the Holland became one of those typical New York institutions: the beloved local haunt forced to shut down. According to Mr. Kelly, who has owned the bar since 1998, the landlord refused to renew the lease in the hopes that he could make more money converting the building for residential use or selling it off. But such plans apparently did not work out, and the landlord offered Mr. Kelly his old space back starting Jan. 1, albeit at a 20 percent increase in the rent. Now the Holland is scheduled to reopen its taps as soon as Wednesday.


But will we recognize the place?

Although the location will be familiar to patrons, Mr. Kelly still had to start practically from scratch in recreating the place. Since the Holland closed its doors, the bar had been destroyed, the plumbing had been removed, the floor had been ripped out.

And much of the physical record of the bar’s history that had been pasted to its walls — the photographs of customers who had died years before, the posters for shows at the dear, departed CBGB — is gone, too.


Hmm, still, I'll take it. So the Holiday is back...The Emerald Inn won't have to close...and Frankie and Johnnie's will live...

For further reading:
Holland Bar (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Brightening Light at the End of the Holland Tunnel (Lost City)

FYI -- Most shit is on sale



Sixth Avenue in the 20s.

Franz Ferdinand are really trying too hard


From the Times, in honor of the band's new album out today:

It was around 3 in the afternoon when Alex Kapranos’s hangover began to wear off. Mr. Kapranos, the lead singer of the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, and his bandmate Nick McCarthy, who plays guitar and keyboards, had spent the previous evening in a refined version of debauchery. They went to a concert — by the British group the Last Shadow Puppets — followed by a late-night feast at the Spotted Pig, the West Village gastropub. Mr. McCarthy capped it off with some dancing at a downtown club, staying out until 5 a.m.

Now both were sitting at Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village, recovering.

“I’m feeling very, very tender,” Mr. Kapranos, 36, said.

“Do you have any tea?” Mr. McCarthy, 34, asked the waitress.

“No hot beverages,” she replied. They ordered water.

Monday, January 26, 2009

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition



It's not your imagination: There are like 25,000 hotels now on the LES (BoweryBoogie)

Jeremiah swings by Ray's for an egg cream...and Bob Arihood was there to capture Ray's 76th birthday celebration.

So long to the Cheyenne (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Karate Boogaloo, who never fails to find interesting content, turns us on to the work of photographer Richard Friedman...including 24 shots from NYC circa the 1960s and 1970s. (Stupefaction)

For those of you who want to go to Europe without actually having to travel (Esquared)

What's so cool about Kool Blue? (Blah Blog Blah)

Legendary Lüchow’s on East 14th Street (Ephemeral New York)

Vanishing City was a success (Colonnade Row)

A little JSBX to get through the day (Flaming Pablum)

A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

Thanks to the tip from the commenter on the last Penistrator post for this news: So! Is Haley Joel Osment, the Sixth Sense star and NYU student, the notorious Penistrator leaving the snow penii on unsuspecting cars around the East Village? The always reliable TMZ.com had the following shot of someone who looks a lot like HJO...



That stroke looks very familiar. Is this how you Pay it Forward?



More TK on this worldwide, breaking, developing story...

Trend alert: The bad old days are here again!

Yesterday, we learned that maybe we won't want to watch realistic fare such as "Life on Marzzzzzzzz" since we'll all be out in the streets shooting each other and who needs TV when there's reality right out the window. Or something sort of like that. Today, the Post has a piece titled:

'SCARED TO COME TO NY'
LIKE BAD OLD DAYS OF PETTY CRIME

It feels like a flashback to the 1980s on city streets -- an era no one's nostalgic for.

Overstretched cops are struggling to combat petty crime, according to police sources -- resulting in an easing of enforcement that's taking Manhattan down fast, angry New Yorkers told The Post.

"People tell me they're scared to come here," said Greg Agnew, owner of the East Bay Diner on First Avenue at 29th Street. "Guys are hanging out in the street, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, loitering. They cause fights. They urinate on the floor, There's drug use."


How about the East Village?

In Alphabet City, residents are seeing signs of decay.

"You're seeing empty drink bottles in the street, you're catching people urinating. They're 'tagging up' [spray-painting graffiti]," said Anibal Pabon, 44, an office clerk. "All that stuff is coming back."


(Hmm...public urination: future trends piece!) I don't mean to make light of any of this...I've noticed a difference...The cynicism comes from how the media are portraying all this...Building an entire crime-trends article around the quote from one NYU student, for instance. So we're right back to the bad old days of the 1980s? (Or, in he case of the Times yesterday, the 1970s?) Things are just GETTING REALLY BAD HERE right?

Meanwhile, on the page opposite this scary crime story in the Post, there's an article titled Crime Dips on Subway.

Subway crime dropped by 3 percent in 2008 -- marking a third straight year in which the good guys gained on the underground goons.

Robberies went from 796 in 2007 to 823 and rapes from one to three, but murders, assaults and grand larcenies all declined, according to NYPD statistics.




Previously on EV Grieve:
Noted
Returning to the scene of the crime

Love Saves the Day is cleared out; Meanwhile, Karen will remain...

Since Love Saves the Day officially closed on Jan. 18, the store had still been full of good loot, like that Charlie's Angels lunchbox. No more, though. On Saturday, everything worth anything was removed and carted off...



A woman walked up and asked one if the movers if there was anything left to buy. He seemed slighly surprised. "NO, it's all gone. There's nothing left," he scolded.

Meanwhile, Karen was setting up shop out front per usual. Was this her last day too, I asked? "Oh no, I'll be here next week...either here or across the street," she said, pointing toward the old Kiev storefront. So that's good news...we'll still have Karen's flea market...and a true EV character.





For further reading and viewing:
Love Saves the Day is Closing, Karen wants to remain here in the East Village (YouTube)
Karen Saves the Day (Jeremiahs's Vanishing NY)
Last Trip to LSD (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
End Comes for Outpost of East Village Counterculture (New York Times)

More turnover on St. Mark's Place: The Iron Fairies store closes

Last week, Crain's had the following news:

Vietnamese restaurant Pho 32 recently signed a 10-year deal for its second Manhattan location, leasing 2,000 square feet on the upper retail level of 13 St. Marks Place, between Second and Third avenues. In addition, Su, a Korean eatery, signed a 10-year lease for 650 square feet on the ground level of the same address.


Fine. The block could really use a few more Asian eateries so there is one in every other storefront...But. Hmm, 13 St. Mark's Place? Isn't that home to the Iron Fairies, the hippy-dippy Australian shop that sells soy-wax candles and handmade soaps? It opened in October 2007; the St. Mark's location was their first in North America.

Anyway, this is the same 13 St. Mark's Place. Which means the Iron Fairies store has closed.




In an article dated Oct. 25, 2007, the New York Sun noted the recent high turnover on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. Iron Fairies was one of eight new retail outlets staking their claim on this block. According to the Sun:

Ashley Sutton, a director of the company that owns Iron Fairies, Wild Blue Holdings, said he settled on St. Marks Place after researching locations in the city for a year and a half.

"We were looking at six locations in Manhattan, but we ended up here," Mr. Sutton said. "The trash is moving out of the neighborhood. It's trendy and has a lot of Asian influence, as well."


Meanwhile, across the street, the former Mondo Kim's awaits a new tenant.



As the Sun article noted: "The owner of Mondo Kim's, Youngman Kim, had put 6 St. Marks Place on the market for $19 million, but he recently decided instead to lease the five-story, 15,000-square-foot building for about $1 million a year, his broker, Steven Rappaport, said. Mr. Kim is "in serious negotiations" with a food vendor, the broker said, but he would not disclose the company's name. The store, which has been at no. 6 for 20 years, will move to another space in the East Village, Mr. Rappaport said. Mr. Kim declined to comment."

Guess we're in for another turnover on this block (David Z shoes is apparently closing too)...just like in the fall of 2007. As the Sun reported then:

Two factors behind the revolving door of retailers on the street are high rents and a demographic of younger shoppers who do not have deep pockets. And despite the fact that foot traffic on St. Marks is usually heavy from the early morning to the late evening, this "gateway to the East Village" lacks luxury residential developments that could help anchor the retailers.

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.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

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.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

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.

Friday, January 23, 2009

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."

Go to Ray's Candy Store


Bob Arihood has written about the plight of Ray at Ray's Candy Store, which has been at 113 Avenue A for 35 years. Now Scoopy has more details in his column (last item) in this week's issue of The Villager. Writes Scoopy:

Friends of Ray Alvarez are really getting concerned about his situation. Alvarez has operated his Ray’s Candy Store, on Avenue A at Seventh St., for years, and everyone just assumed he’d saved up a nice nest egg. But it turns out, he’s broke. He needs new glasses and has a bad hernia you don’t want to hear the details of, and his diet is mainly leftover potatoes that he doesn’t make into Belgian fries and maybe some soft ice cream.


Anyway, it's a complicated situation. So, stop by. Or at least visit the MySpace page that Eden Brower created for him. As his bio reads there:

Ray is a lower east side icon who is loved by many...He makes the best belgian fries around and will serve you with love and a smile...Home to old timer regulars, drunks, tourists, wingnuts, political activists and hipsters, Ray's is a unique piece of old new york in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.. Please come to Ray's and support this beloved treasure!!

One opinion (not mine) on the "Top 10 New York Bar Names"


Meet Now Live's Nightlife and Bar Guide, which gave us the "Top Ten Dirtiest Bars in New York," has another listicle. Presented here in its entirety without comment. It's up to you to decide if they were trying to be funny. Or offensive. Or...

Funny, Stupid, Sexual, Weird, whatever…these are the top 10 New York bars with the best names. Some I’ve been to, some I refused to go to…if you’re at one of these bars, hit “broadcast now” from the bar’s mobile MNL page to let us know!

Here are the top ten great bar names of New York:

1. Wogies - West Village - anyone have any clue where this came from?

2. Murphy & Gonzalez - West Village - So an Irishman and a Mexican walk into a bar…

3. 1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer - Midtown West - It’s like calling your bar “$3 Drafts”

4. Kettle of Fish - West Village - wtf?

3. Arlene’s Grocery - Lower East Side - No Arlene and definitely no groceries going on in this place.

4. No Idea - Flatiron - exactly, no idea.

5. Otto’s Shrunken Head - East Village - uhhmmm….yyyyyeah.

6. Chumley’s Bar - West Village - Sounds like something you do after a long night of boozing or could be one of those sex postions…”I gave some girl the sickest Chumley last night!”

7. Galway Hooker - Garment District - So many guys walk into this place with a handfull of cash and completely pissed off.

8. Burp Castle - East Village - Amazingly this place is actually a nice place to bring a date.

9. The Redhead - East Village - If you go downstairs to the basement, it too is also red.

10. I’m Gonna Kill You Tavern & Grille - OK, I made this one up.

Honorable Mention:

Happy Ending - Chinatown - because a happy ending is NOT what you get here

Slaughtered Lamb - Greenwich Village - just a gross name

Nowhere - East Village - cause thats exactly where you tell people you were last night if you went here last night

Ding-Dong Lounge - Upper West Side - AKA “Penis Tavern”

Walking by the Lululemon Athletica shop

I'm always curious when I see storefronts being renovated, like the one at 156 Fifth Avenue at 20th Street. After quite a bit of work, it turned out to be a Lululemon Athletica shop, a place that sells yoga-inspired women's athletic wear. The store opened on Black Friday, Nov. 28. Fine. So I was a little startled when I walked by the store again this week...to see that's it's closing...and moving to a new Union Square location, which opens today. Dumb question, but why would you spend all the money to renovate a space only to close and move two months later...?


Pussy Galore in Times Square

Recent Times Square in the 1970s/1980s/1990s posts by Alex at Flaming Pablum and Ken at Greenwich Village Daily Photo prompted me to dig out one of my favorite records, Pussy Galore's "Corpse Love." The CD sleeve includes each of the five band members standing in front of an appropriate marquee on 42nd Street. Only included the shots of Messrs. Hagerty and Spencer here...


New wave!

An ad from Wednesday's Post.



The new wave of markerting...?

And previously.

Landmark yes, condos no


The Villager this week reports that: The Community Board 3 Landmarks Committee decided last week to continue efforts to have the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the East Village designated as a city landmark and to help locate funding for the financially troubled church.

The church, built in 1891, is located at 59 E.Second St. And those plans to add eight residential stories to its current 60-foot height have been squashed.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Save the date/Reminder



For more information, head over to Kirby's at Colonnade Row. And you can thank him for helping put this together.

For further reading:
The Vanishing City (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)