I sense that Robin Raj gets a new upstairs tenant

A clairvoyant! Chakra balancing! At 114 Third Ave.

For the complete EV Grieve mini-series on Robin Raj, please click this.

Dollar days on St. Mark's

New York City Daily Photo has the above shot of the various $1 deals on St. Mark's Place. I, too, will pass on the $1 sushi.

Noted

"It has been a rough month for New York City archery, one of the more obscure sports in this sports-obsessed city."

Tales from the rent-is-falling front

“Probably somebody who’s relocating would still be surprised today: ‘This is the size of apartment I get for this price?’ ” said Caroline Bass, an associate broker with Citi Habitats. “But New Yorkers think this is great right now. Maybe you appreciate it more if you spend more time here.” (The New York Times)

Fair warning: Where the pub crawlers will be today

Here's the information on today's rugby pub crawl through the neighborhood:

In conjunction with the Four Leaf Fifteens Rugby Tournament in New York City, the typical after-tournament social has been replaced with a 1000+ participant rugby pub crawl around Lower Manhattan.

The pub crawl begins at 2:30pm after the first teams are knocked out of the tournament at Randall's Island, with over a half dozen bars and restaurants participating. You won’t want to miss the free mechanical bull riding competition around 4:00pm.

The second stop will begin around 6pm and include five new bars with different drink specials, all located a few blocks north on Avenue A. As teams are eliminated from the tournament or their final ends, they will want to hurry down to lower Manhattan to join the other players, ensuring this will make history as the largest rugby pub crawl in US history.

The final stop of the pub crawl, starting around 8:30pm, will include around a dozen more bars and restaurants, all with new drink and food specials, on Avenue’s B and C. All three stops will be within walking distance of each other so there’s no need for cars or taxis.

Pub Crawl details (more to be added)

First Stop: 2:30pm-6:30pm

Location: New York’s Lower East Side

Participating Bars: Mason Dixon, Fat Baby, Bondi Road, Donnybrook’s, Lucky Jack’s

Participating Restaurants: Tuck Shop Aussie Meat Pies, Mason Dixon, Ray’s Pizza

Sample specials: $20 all you can drink for 2 hours; $3 beers, $3 well drinks; 10-20% off food



Second Stop: 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Avenue A between Houston and 2nd Street

Participating Bars: Nice Guy Eddie’s, Library Bar, 2A, Double Down Saloon, Kelly’s

Participating Restaurants: Tuck Shop Aussie Meat Pies, Ray’s Pizza

Sample Specials: $2 PBRs, $2 beers; $3 beer and a shot; 2 for 1’s; 10-20% off food



Third Stop: 8:30pm – Midnight

Location: Avenue’s B and C between 2nd Street and 10th Street

Participating Bars: Croxley’s Ales, Mama’s Bar, Rehab, Poco (SB3), 7B, Duke’s, the Porch, Ten Eleven, East Village Tavern, the Royale

Participating Restaurants: Tuck Shop Aussie Meat Pies, Café Rakka, Zaitzeff Kobe Burgers, Bite Me Best

Sample Specials: $3 beers; $4 Jacks; $5 martinis and margaritas; 10-20% off food

Activities planned:

Bull Riding Competition

Tournament trophy presentations

Shoot the Boot bar

St. Baldrick’s head shaving

50/50 Raffle

We’ll have plenty of bracelets to hand out as well – you’ll need to make sure to wear them in order to get these amazing discounts. You'll need to be attending the Four Leaf 15s Rugby Tournament (free for spectators) to get a wrist band.

Uh-oh: PUB CRAWL ALERT: THREAT LEVEL REALLY RED

Lock your doors.

A thousand rugby players invade New York for the Four Leaf Rugby Tournament on Saturday on Randall's Island. Fifty rugby teams from around the country will compete from 8AM to 7PM while spectators eat free food and drink free beer. A free "Try Rugby" clinic will be offered for kids under 14. After the last game, you can join the 1,000+-participant rugby pub crawl through the East Village and Lower East Side.

Details here.

Stay tuned.

Unemployment Olympics coming to Tompkins Square Park

From the Daily News:

A laid-off computer programmer is putting on the Unemployment Olympics next week at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.

The jobless can take a break from scanning the classifieds and updating their résumés to compete in events like the Fax Machine Toss and the You're Fired Race.

Nick Goddard, 26, came up with the idea when he lost his position last month, and he got a permit to stage the Olympiad at the ballfields at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. "Maybe it will lift everyone's spirits a little," Goddard said yesterday. "Originally, my thought was just to make people laugh."

There will be four events, including Pin the Blame on the Bosses featuring blindfolded competitors - and a stress-relieving piñata.

And there's a Web site.

Looking back (at our future?)

Nice collection of Allan Tannenbaum's photos from 1970s NYC yesterday afternoon over at Gothamist...such as this one of a young woman working on Times Square....

Main Street NYC: The Bowery

In case you missed this on WNYC:

All so-called Main Streets are not alike. In Manhattan, main thoroughfares like Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street have gone through massive changes -- yet they maintain anchor tenants that bring people back over and over. So it is with the Bowery. In the third installment of the Main Street NYC project, WNYC's Brigid Bergin takes us to a five-block stretch of this street with an infamous reputation and ongoing transformation.

WNYC has more stories and photos here. Good comments too.

Warning Sign

Reminder: "Home Grown LES" and "Captured" Monday night

Special screening of Clayton Patterson's "Captured" — 8 p.m. at Collective Hardware, 169 Bowery
Benefit for Collective Hardware’s “Home Grown L.E.S”

Here's the trailer:

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Kurt Anderson on the end of excess (Time)

Scary Carrie to have kids in SATC sequel? (Us)

P.S. 64 becoming a goddamn dorm? (The Villager)

Remembering the City Orphanage in the East Village (Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts)

Fight the cuts (Save the Lower East Side!)

Tour the new Yankme Stadium (News Radio 88)

An interesting storefront on Bleecker (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Iggy has a new record due in May (Hunter-Gatherer)

Robyn Hitchcock is coming to town (Brooklyn Vegan)

Fun with hipsters: Watch it with the Sonic Youth! (BuzzFeed)

How many homes does Lenny Kravitz have for sale? (The Real Estalker)

What took them so long?: Madoff the movie (Runnin' Scared)

Ken's on the LES (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

In the dark: Observing Earth Hour tomorrow (Gothamist)

Art finds its corner in the East Village (Columbia Spectator)

Falafels for lunch today...? Oh, on second thought...

Great ad placement.

Friday Photo Follies

The makeover at Zips continues: Now the graffiti is gone

As I noted last Friday, the former Zips Deli on Avenue B at Fifth Street is getting a makeover



The hot rumor — which means it's wrong — is an upscale diner-type place. (As long as it's not another cafe-bakery-small-plates-type place. Or a bar. Or yogurt. Or...)

Anyway, while on the way home from work, I noticed the paint job...and removal of the graffiti...





This will not make the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve very happy.

Meanwhile, the work permit made an appearance the past week.

The Haunting of the East Village

"The Haunting of Connecticut" finally opens today...Hoorah! I'm tired of seeing these ads around the neighborhood showing what looks like a young man....



who spent too much time at happy hour....

Tough Love

I stood outside one of the windows on the East Seventh Street side of the former Love Saves the Day store. I wish I could describe the noise coming from the inside.



It was like hundreds of tiles were being smashed...it almost sounded frenzied, as if someone handed rowdy teens a few cases of Sparks and some sledgehammers and said, "you won't get into trouble."

Anyway, as Jeremiah reported, the space will become the neighborhood's 300th ramen joint. Not much left inside.



Still not used to seeing this space so, well, empty.



[Photo via Newsday by Damion Reid]

Where is Karen?

Speaking of Loves Saves the Day...what happened to Karen? Despite LSD closing, she told me on Jan. 24 that she would continue with her flea market in front of this location — or on the other side of the street, whatever they're calling the former location of the Kiev.



However, I don't recall having seen her lately...Has anyone spotted her around the neighborhood...or know what happened to her?

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)

One more thing: No more pay phones at the old LSD spot

Back on Jan. 13, I wondered how long the pay phones outside the former Love Saves the Day store would last...



I have my answer: They were removed this week.

Does Duff have junk in the trunk?

We continue to follow what will likely be the most important story coming out of the East Village this year. Runnin' Scared had the following tidbit about Hilary Duff's junkie turn on "Law & Order: Special Guest-Star Unit" from Monday:

In the scenes, we are elsewhere informed, Duff is looking to "score" some "stuff," and acts all mouthy to Ice-T, who says something "street."

Word!

Meanwhile! My Hilary Duff/SVU connection sent along the Duff photos that adorn this page. We thank you for that, Hilary-Duff-photo-e-mailing stranger.



Anyway, I can't wait for the Vanessa Hudgens-Zac Efron remake of "The Wire." (Oops, not yet April 1...)

Noted

There's an ugly Police Blotter item in this week's issue of The Villager about a man who lives on St. Mark's Place. He was arrested for menacing his girlfriend with knives. As the report stated:

The suspect told the victim, “You don’t know who you are messing with. I’m from Detroit,” according to the assault charge filed by the Manhattan district attorney.

From the EV Grieve Holmby Hills, Calif. Bureau

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150 million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S.

Let's do it again: Ruby's likey to return

Grub Street has the scoop on the Coney Island boardwalk scene.

[Photo via New York by Melissa Hom]

Reminder: The Vanishing City Part II on Sunday

Kirby has all the details at Colonnade Row.

Happy holidays!

As of yesterday, March 25, the holiday lights were still up in Chinatown.

Noted

"MORRISSEY didn't break from his ardent vegetarianism at Webster Hall last night. The singer, whose second album with the Smiths was titled 'Meat Is Murder,' requested no meat products of any kind be in the building before, during, or after his performance. 'There were no deli sandwiches, sushi, pepperoni pizza or anything else that used to have a face,' laughs our source. 'Even the cleaning staff were happy to do their part by bringing in veggie sandwiches for lunch.'" (Page Six)

Should anyone really be eating sushi during a (rock) concert?

Preservation inaction: Historic building now a parking lot

We've been keeping our eyes on Pearl Street down in the Financial District, particularly the space adjacent to the Rockrose condo that's zipping right along (or up)... So, with the hotel plans for the now-empty lot on hold ... what does one do then with an empty, um, lot?

Ta-da! Make it a parking lot!




For further reading:
Lot still vacant where Pearl St. artists lost homes (Downtown Express)

From Tribe to tapas at First Avenue and St. Mark's Place

A tapas joint will open at the former space of Tribe on First Avenue at St. Mark's, Patrick Hedlund reports in his Mixed Use column in this week's issue of The Villager. According to Hedlund, Danny Rivera, owner of the Crooked Tree around the corner on St. Mark's, will launch the tapas bar in June.

"I'm a guy from the neighborhood; I've lived here for over 10 years," Rivera told Mixed Use. "My plan is to make the place for the community."

As you may recall, Dr. Tara Allmen owns the five-story building that housed Tribe, which closed in late January. As the Real Deal reported in early February:

Allmen, a physician, inherited the building from her mother, Renée Allmen, along with several other East Village properties, and recently completed renovating the four residential spaces in the building. She called Tribe "an eyesore."

"I want a classier place," she said, adding that Tribe "was not going to enhance the aesthetic of the building."

Here's what Allmen told Mixed Use:

"I'm replacing a dive bar with an elegant wine bar and tapas place. Do I think it's a plus to have a higher-class place in the East Village? I would say it's a bonus to have wonderful, quality places in the East Village."

Said Rivera, "It's a neighborhood guy that's going to open up in the neighborhood. It's in the hands of people in the neighborhood. It's not going to be a sushi spot or a bank."

Chewpid

As you know, in this recession, people are buying and, we assume, eating more candy. In turn, companies are spending big money on marketing such delights.

Stuart Elliott wrote about this in the Times on March 3:

It was only a year or so ago that the concept of affordable luxury meant a Coach bag, Tiffany bauble or Starbucks latte. Since then, the recession has defined splurging downward to the price level of a can of soda, pack of gum or candy bar.

That is why many marketers of those prosaic products are still spending like it’s 2007 when it comes to advertising. For instance, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola recently came out with new campaigns, as did several gum brands, among them Ice Breakers.

Another case in point is the confectionery behemoth Mars, which is introducing a major campaign for its best-selling candy brand, Snickers, that is centered on a make-believe language called Snacklish.

Snacklish is a humorous way of speaking that revises everyday words and phrases for a Snickers-centric world. To underscore their origin, they are printed in the typeface and colors of the Snickers brand logo.

The campaign is also purposely infused with a slapstick, yuk-yuk approach... That tack is meant to appeal to the target consumer for Snickers, defined ... as men ages 18 to 49 with “a bull’s-eye of 18 to 34.”

OK. I haven't eaten a Snickers since I was 14. But! I have been oddly curious/repelled by the Snickers snads around the neigh-bar-hood. (Sorry.)






Meanwhile, the Feast Village ad keeps eluding me...

Keystrokes in flight

Dunno how long this has been on Second Street...Years and I just noticed it? Regardless, I like it.

Third cafe-bakery-small-plates-type place opens on Avenue B between Second Street and Seventh Street

La Bonne Bouffe, a new cafe-bakery-small-plates-type place, is now open on the corner of Avenue B and Second Street.



This is the third cafe-bakery-small-plates place to open since January on Avenue B between Second Street and Seventh Street... LBB joins Coyi Cafe and Paradiso.

Oh, and with this opening...we are down to 21 empty storefronts on Avenue B.

Noted

Uh-huh.