Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition
All Dolled up again: New New York Dolls record coming in May (Hunter-Gatherer)
Free 40th anniversary Woodstock shows this summer...one small detail: there's no NY venue just yet (Brooklyn Vegan)
U2 Way in play; key to Earth next? (Gothamist)
Finding the elusive hybrid Civic taxi (NYC Taxi Photo)
Jeremiah catches a peep of old Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
The skinniest ad on First Avenue (Scouting NY)
"Watchmen" PR team needs viral marketers with better spelling skills (Flaming Pablum)
A Woody Allen brooch. Or maybe: A Woody Allen brooch? (BuzzFeed)
The hole at Houston and Mulberry (BoweryBoogie)
No more "Life on Mars"
Variety (via NY Mag's Vulture) has the news:
ABC has decided to end the show after a single year -- but in an unusual move, the net will keep the show on the air through the end of its full run.
That will give the series a rare opportunity to sign off with a proper finale, wrapping up the series' core mystery.
Network insiders said they were fans of the show and pleased with its creative chops -- but that the ratings ultimately didn't warrant a second season. The most recent seg of "Life on Mars" averaged just a 2.0 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, as well as 5.5 million viewers.
The show had been filmed, in part, around the neighborhood going back to last summer. We liked the premise -- time-traveling cop returns to 1970s NYC. And we championed the show until we actually watched it. Oh, it was fine. But I stopped watching after the second or third episode.
Here's our complete "LIfe on Mars" coverage.
The last American Virgins to close
You probably saw the news last Friday that the two Virgin Megastores in New York (Union Square, Times Square) will close in the coming months. (It was previously reported that just the Times Square location would shut.) Then late yesterday, Billboard reported that all of the remaining Virgin stores in the United States were being shuttered.
This has certainly been discussed somewhere...but! Are there any chain record stores left in NYC? I've lost track. The F.Y.E. on Sixth Avenue near Radio City is long gone, right? And I don't count those combo chains like Best Buy or Barnes & Noble that may sell music...or locals like J&R.
Anyway, I'm no fan of Virgin or any national chains...And Alex expressed exactly how I feel about all this in a post from this past January:
I don't honestly believe the Virgin Megastore is all that great. Sure, it's convenient, but it's ultimately just an arguably soulless chain store that caters to the lo.com.denom-addicted masses. That said, it's yet another place to buy music that is vanishing, and I find that rather sad.
So maybe this is a little good news for the remaining indie record shops around town? Otherwise, like everything else, it's a bad time for music...including Mondo Kim's, Etherea (a new record shop at this spot is in the works with a different vibe)...Strider Records maybe... Vinyl specialist Malachi Records quietly closed after just six months. They were in a rather obscure second-floor location at Fulton and Nassau in the Financial District....What else am I missing? Oh, and not to forget what's happening to Music Row.
Related:
In case you haven't seen Ben Sisario's "The death and life of great Manhattan record stores" piece from last April.
Speaking of record stores...
The former Bondy's on Park Row still sits vacant...it closed in early 2007, as I recall. (Love that they had "Walkmans" on their sign...)
What do Kermit the Frog and Lou Reed now have in common?
Meanwhile, Supreme unveiled its latest model last week....Here's Lou on some plywood on East Seventh Street near First Avenue.....
[Kermit photos via Allen AKA]
Related:
Supreme's Lou Reed Campaign Gets a Touch-Up (Gothamist)
Happy birthday, Lou Reed (Flaming Pablum)
Plywood at St. Brigid's taken over by new (healthy!) fast-food restaurant posters
On the Avenue B side....
And on the Eighth Street side....
And on the Eighth Street side....
Today's time sucker: PadMapper
I was reading about PadMapper on LifeHacker...and started playing around with it for no good reason. (Oh, what's PadMapper? As Adam explained at LifeHacker: It "maps Craigslist's apartment listings on a Google Map for an at-a-glance look at available offerings.")
Anyway, I came across a "recession" discount sublet -- $125 for a room on Avenue A and 10th Street. Huh? Is that for a day? A week? I went to look at the actual listing on Craigslist...and it had been removed.
Two signs of the Christmas holiday even though it was actually March 2
J&R on Park Row...
At 10th Street and Avenue A...
At 10th Street and Avenue A...
Monday, March 2, 2009
EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition
Former LES resident Richard Boes, a regular in the early films of Jim Jarmusch, died on Feb. 21. In recent years he had self-published several acclaimed books. (DWX)
Let's not repeat the mistakes of Nassau Street (New York Post)
...but they do have that new free store (New York Post)
Manitoba's turns 10 -- and launches new Web site (This Ain't the Summer of Love)
The hand signals of the Stork Club (A Continuous Lean via Grub Street)
Rev. Billy's bid for mayor (Gothamist)
Remembering Music Row (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
A rundown on LES car services (BoweryBoogie)
Someone had the balls to eat a granola bar in the Pee Pee Phone (Slum Goddess)
New Yorkers cutting back on cable (Bits)
Exclusive: It snowed
Bar with no name opens in former Mo Pitkin's space
We were surprised to find the former Mo Pitkin's space reopened as a bar this past weekend. We knew something was in the works for the place. In any event, there was a "soft opening" -- as they say -- this past Friday in which a reliable EV Grieve operative reported that the place looked "sketchy" in sort of an Upper East Side way. There's no indication outside what the place is called. In any event, it's apparently run by the folks behind Aces & Eights, the fratty Yorkville saloon on First Avenue and 87th Street.
The former Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction bar/restaurant/performance space at 34 Avenue A closed in October 2007. It was owned in part by Two Boots honcho Phil Hartman. According to the Observer last November, the building was sold for $4 million.
We stopped by ourselves last night...but the place was closed...no word yet on what will become of the performance space upstairs. There is a rather rumpled-looking banner advertising loft space for rent hanging from the second level, though it looks like it's for LiveinNYC.net. (They have no listings for spaces on Avenue A.) It would be a shame if this becomes just another bar...losing the performance part of the space in the process.
A look inside Sunday night...
A REAL bad sign: The Jagerettes at the Holiday
1) I understand the fact that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place needs to make money to stay open...so why not attract the dreaded Saturday night crowd.
2) Stefan never would have gone for this.
PS
Well, it could have been worse, like the Jager dudes...
PSS
I've never actually seen the Jagerettes...here's a shot (so to speak) from another event that I found on the Internets...
The shroud of WaMu: The Bowery loses a bank
The Washington Mutual closed up shop on Bowery and Bond ... WaMuers need to head over to the next closest WaMu location at St. Mark's and Second Avenue. Seems like the perfect spot for something such as another bank branch!
Noted
Our old friend Esquared passed along information about the Modern Day Depression-Era Fundraiser at the City Reliquary in Williamsburg...Like everyone else, they're having a tough time paying rent...Anyway, what did we miss from the fundraiser this past Friday? Here's how they described some of the night's activities:
Pie the Landlord! That’s right: the City Reliquary will have our very own cigar-chomping, unshaven, smelly Landlord demanding our rent! Tell him where to shove it with a whipped cream pie in his face!
Hobo Photos a Go-Go: Take your picture in our hand painted carnival sign. Remember the Recession of ’09 with a photographic keepsake!
Oil drum fires: (and more modern propane heaters) to keep you warm while you chill in the cold. All fires will be regulated carefully by official FDNY supervision!
DIY Fingerless Gloves Table! Because nothing says Depression-chic than rockin’ a pair of fingerless gloves!
Prohibition-era Beer provided by the Brooklyn Brewery and Depression-era “Rum” Punch provided by the City Reliquary at contemporary-recession era prices.
What do you think?
A) Hey, we're all fucked, might as well make light of it!
B) As funny as Hugh Jackman's recession opening number at the Oscars! (Not that I watched it.)
C) As insulting as Hugh Jackman's recession opening number at the Oscars! (Not that I watched it.)
D) Stupid
E) All the above
Sunday, March 1, 2009
New Port Authority plan could wipe out a dozen Midtown properties (including two good bars)
From the Post:
An $8.75 billion plan to build another train tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan may wipe out a dozen Manhattan properties that can be seized through eminent domain, the Port Authority said.
And what could be lost?
That means Sunglass Hut, Payless Shoes, Duane Reade, Foot Action and several other businesses -- including 40-year-old neighborhood favorites Blarney Rock pub and Hickey's bar -- are in the way.
PA Executive Director Chris Ward added that the agency is hoping to work with the businesses to relocate them and is "in fact going beyond" in negotiations with shop owners.
But Blarney Rock owner Tom Dwyer -- who has been in his 33rd Street location since he and his immigrant dad opened the pub in 1969 -- is worried he will not find an alternate location he can afford close to Madison Square Garden.
"This is devastating," said Dwyer, who hopes to pass on the business to his daughter. "We worked hard all these years, just to have our place turned into a fan plant. It doesn't seem right."
Jeremiah wrote about Hickey's (and Peep World!) last January.
As hard as they tried, the Times couldn't find anyone to say Yes
Hasn't this story been done already?....From the Times today: As Hard Times Loom, Will New York’s Streets Get Meaner?
Uh-oh!
If a shrinking economy, soaring jobless claims and a troubled financial sector are not angst-producing enough, the threat of increased crime is leading many conversations toward a nagging and persistent question: Will the bad old days of record numbers of murders and ubiquitous street muggings be far behind?
YES! RIGHT?
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, for his part, said he has heard this all before.
He said similar worries were being voiced as he took over in 2002 for a second stint as the city’s top police official: Things were headed in the wrong direction, the economy was devastated after Sept. 11, 2001, and there were predictions that crime would increase.
Instead, overall crime has dropped nearly 30 percent in the last seven years, he said, and in 2007 the lowest number of killings was recorded since the city started keeping what it considers reliable records, about four decades ago.
“There’s a lot of predictions that crime is going to go up as a result of the economic crisis,” Mr. Kelly said on Friday...
“The fact of the matter is that hasn’t happened,” Mr. Kelly said. “The fact is we’re down 14 percent, and we’re down in every category across the city.”
Hmm, well...I'm sure this story will be revisited in another month or so.
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