Monday, May 4, 2009

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition



Why you won't be able to see the July 4 fireworks very well this year on your EV rooftop (NewYorkology)

Le Souk is leaving Avenue B (Eater)

A makeshift first concert in TSP this spring (Little Stories and Maybe Poems From Now and Then)

Can the old Delphi space survive Bouleyville? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

At the Worker and Immigrant Rights rally (Slum Goddess)

Horizonless Manhattan (Esquared)

Study break on Avenue A? (Neither More Nor Less)

L Train riders mock Stuy Town (Lux Living)

Jim Jarmusch likes to walk (Filmmaker)

Capturing a hidden part of Hudson Street (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Finding gold and silver on Stanton (BoweryBoogie)

Times Square terror courtesy of Nic Cage film (New York Post)

Things to do if you're filming a movie today on Second Street and have some downtime

You know moviemaking! You stand around for 10 hours waiting to film a 45-second scene. Lots of downtime. So for the cast (Angelina!) and crew of "Salt," filming today on Second Street, here are some things that you can do right around the shoot location...

Shop for Christmas and Valentine's Day decorations at the 99-cent store on First Avenue near Fifth Street...



Buy a few beers to go from the Houston Village Farm on First Avenue at Fourth Street...



Window shop at Brickman and Son's on First Avenue...



Take your dry cleaning to the Hollywood-sounding Exquisite Cleaners on First Avenue at Third Street...



See if "Salt" will be a box-office hit at the modest-sounding Gifted Psychic on Third Street...



Sell your Academy Award here... (or at least get your bangs trimmed)



Try a massage at the Waterfront Spa on Second Street...



Do a few loads of laundry at First Avenue at Second Street...



Watch the NYC theatrical debut of "Ice People" at the Anthology Film Archives at Second Avenue and Second Street...



Drink at the Mars Bar...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the paparazzi will be in the East Village tomorrow (OMG! Angelina!)

SHOCKER: Something other than ramen and froyo coming to St. Mark's Place

The little fella here has left his perch, of course...



And coming to this space on 18 St. Mark's Place? An ice cream shop. This per one of the tightest-lipped construction crews ever. Seriously. You thought I had asked, "Can you tell me when Air Force One will do another photo shoot over the skies of Manhattan?"

New bar for Avenue A?

Something is coming to this space on 32 Avenue A near Third Street (next door to Aces & Eights)... the former sushi joint that closed last spring.



The work permit mentions "ground floor bar." Haven't seen anything about a liquor license for this space.

Daughter of Peeler Man booted from Union Square Greenmarket


For some reason this article isn't posted yet online at the Post. Anyway, Ruth Ades-Laurent, whose dad sold the vegetable peelers on Union Square and elsewhere for 15 years... has been booted from the Union Square Greenmarket, she said. Joe Ades died Feb. 1. He was 75. She was allowed to take over for her father for several weeks, then she was sent packing by Greenmarket officials. "They said, 'We put up with him long enough, and we're not putting up with you,'" she told the paper. Greenmarket officials said that only official vendors can operate on market grounds. The article is on Page 2 of the Post today. The headline: Losing all her a-peel.

For further reading:
The Gentleman Grafter (Vanity Fair)

New Dominican restaurant coming to Avenue B

The folks at Chabela's, 40 Avenue B (site of the former pizza joint Russo's)...



are on the docket for a beer and wine permit next Monday.



Interesting to see what transpires: This is an application within one of CB3's "restricted areas." According to CB3, there are 42 liquor licenses on Avenue B between Houston Street and 14th Street. (Is this number still accurate?)

Meanwhile, this addition will bring the Avenue B empty storefront count down to 19.

Signs from the H1N1 (swine flu!) pandemic



I'm so looting this store now. Must find cure...

Busy Saturday for Cooper Square construction

Busy Saturday on Cooper Square. Construction all around...

At the Cooper Square Hotel:






At 2 Cooper Square:



At the Cooper Union:




P.S.
A little CBGB nostalgia on Fifth Street:


"They're dead meat" -- and the celebrities who complained about living near a meat warehouse


As Eater reported on April 8, Pat La Frieda's West Village Meat Warehouse was put on the market for $31 million.

In an article titled "They're dead meat," the Post took a closer look at the La Frieda's warehouse, which has been there for 30 years. A few excerpts:

A lot of people would like to see us out of here. We don't fit no more," La Frieda said as he gestured toward the luxury apartments that have sprouted around his warehouse just south of the district.


and...

...La Frieda no longer feels welcome, with noise complaints from ritzy neighbors piling up and city-issued tickets during loading and unloading totaling $84,760 last year.


and...

Actress Eva Mendes and one of the Olsen twins, who briefly owned a penthouse across the street, were among the star-studded cast of complainers, La Frieda's son Pat Jr. claimed.


and...

The La Frieda warehouse was put on the market for $31 million last month, and boutique hoteliers Ian Schrager and Peter Moore have expressed interest, Sotheby's broker Robson Zanetti said.

In its heyday, 250 wholesale butchers chopped meat within the dozen blocks officially known as the Gansevoort Market. By 2003, as men in snug tennis sweaters started outnumbering those in bloodstained aprons, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation counted just 35 butchers.

In the past year, at least nine meatpackers quietly moved out.

As for the lack of the district's namesake businesses, "It doesn't make a difference to me. I didn't even know this area existed four years ago until I came," said Mario Cameron, controller for the warehouse's new owner, Robert Isabell.

The exodus leaves only seven butchers in the district, all inside a city-owned co-op with a lease set to expire in 2014.


For further reading:
Interstate Food, Inc.: Vanishing (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Signs from the recession

Houston near Norfolk.



Avenue A near Third Street.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Why the paparazzi will be in the East Village tomorrow (OMG! Angelina!)

"Salt" is expected to be one of the big Hollywood summer movie smasheroos upon its release on July 23, 2010. It's a CIA thriller (a rogue agent!) with Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It's being directed by Phillip Noyce.

First, of course, the movie needs to be made. Which is why they're filming in the East Village tomorrow, specifically on Second Street between First and Second Avenues.




It promises to be one humdinger of a production. (Let's hope this scene doesn't call for confetti.) "It's the biggest film shoot in New York City right now," a crew member told me. They've been filming around the city...and in Albany! (It's such a big film, Tom Cruise was once going to play the lead role.) The crew member was sitting on the steps the Russian Orthodox Cathedral keeping an eye on the equipment. This was the easy part, he said. Because tomorrow...





...he'll have to help keep the paparazzi at bay. "You'll know when she's here."

"Salt" substitute

The Divine Liturgy this morning at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection on Second Street was held in the basement this morning...




...as the church is prepped for a scene tomorrow in the Angelina Jolie thriller "Salt." (And now you know why the headline to this post is so corny.)




Wardrobe and hair and makeup will also be taking place tomorrow in the basement hall.

Things I really probably don't want to know about (with apologies)

Like what, exactly, is all this on Seventh Street outside Caracas this morning. Quite a spectacle. Whatever it is, it's all over the family truckster too.