About that noise you hear if your windows are open

Fireworks for the 100th anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge. Depending on your rooftop, you can kind of see the fireworks...

Important questions of the day (and our time): Is Madonna hanging out in East Village "dive bars"

A reader sent me this item about Madonna and her current boyfriend Jesus Luz from Radar:

Luz has followed Madonna from London to New York, appeared on her arm at the Met Gala and dive bars in the East Village of Manhattan.

Per the reader:

"Um, is Madonna really hanging out in East Village 'dive bars?'"

Oh, I forgot to mention this ... I was sitting in the Grassroots the other day. And Madonna and Jesus walk on... they only have credit cards, and the Grassroots doesn't take credit cards. So I buy them a $7 happy hour pitcher of Michelob Amber Bock and a $1 basket of popcorn... To thank me, Madonna gives me a Kabbalah bracelet made out of braided red string ...

Yeah, that's not true. If Madonna is hanging out in the East Village, it will likely make the cover of the Post.

Breaking: Sun, blue skies return

Breaking: Blue skies disappear

Fall Out Bar

As Gawker reported last night, Angels & Kings on 11th Street near Avenue A was shut down for serving minors & morons. Pete Wentz is one of the bar's owners.

Anyway, when the bar opened in May 2007, Joshua Stein filed the following report on Gawker.

When emo-troubadour Pete Wentz opened Angels and Kings, a bar in the East Village, our douche canary in our douche mineshaft keeled over and died. First of all, Pete Wentz is going to be there. As he tells Page Six: "Yeah, I'm just gonna be local and drink umbrella drinks." So this isn't your normal dive. According to one of his business partners, this is a dive where "anyone can go and have sex in the bathroom and not get in trouble." So it's located in international waters?

Saturday at the Cooper Square Hotel

Someone standing around told me this was a shoot for a music video.





DNA the band?

Not this DNA, of course.

Sitting one out

The benches on the eastern side of Tompkins Square Park were painted yesterday.




Someone wondered about the wisdom of painting the benches on a late-spring Saturday... a day that promised to bring many people to the park. The person who wondered this could not find a suitable spot to sit. And he did not want to sit in the grass next to people in swimming attire.

"No place stays the same for 15 years, certainly not in Manhattan"

Jim Dwyer writes about Surma Books & Music on Seventh Street near Cooper Square in the Times today. An excerpt:

When Myron Surmach moved from shopkeeping to beekeeping in the 1950s, he turned the store over to his son, Myron Jr., who had a fine run as impresario of Ukrainian dances and parties and outfitting the flower children of the 1960s. Peasant blouses were in demand. Janis Joplin and Joan Baez and members of the Mamas and the Papas shopped in Surma Books & Music.

The grandson, Markina Surmach, whose first language was Ukrainian, lived above the store until he was 6. He left Little Ukraine and New York behind in 1991. “You want to define yourself, apart from the mold,” he said. “I chose to run away.” He started a Web-development business in Denver.

Surmach the beekeeper and store founder died in 1991, not quite 99 years old. His son died in 2003, at age 71. Markina has a sister, who was busy raising her children.

“If I didn’t come back, the store was going to close,” he said.

No place stays the same for 15 years, certainly not in Manhattan. With a few exceptions, Ukrainians have long since drained from the Lower East Side. So have the artists living cheaply. “The homogenization of city life is not unique to New York, or this country,” Mr. Surmach said. “It’s all over the world.”

[Image via]

Theatre 80 to remain a theater: "We intend to keep the East Village a vibrant arts community"

Good news. Lorcan Otway, whose parents built and operated Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place, left a comment on my post from Thursday. (He also sent the letter to my fellow bloggers who commented on the post.) The news Thursday: The Pearl Theatre Company, which has had a residency at Theatre 80 the past 15 years, is relocating to Midtown for its 2009-2010 season. In a statement, the Pearl's Artistic Director Shepard Sobel said, in part: "While we are disappointed the East Village is losing a theatrical venue to commercial enterprise..."

Which left us wondering what might replace the Pearl as a tenant. Naturally, we assumed the worst. Fear not, though. Here's Lorcan:

Thank you for the kind comments, from past audience members and a former tenant. We dearly loved all the tenants who rented from us, including the Pearl. Be assured that the Otway family still owns and runs Theater 80. My mother is well and sends her dearest regards to all.

When we came to Saint Marks Place in 1964, there was not a tree on the block. My father planted the first three trees on this now tree lined promenade. At the age of eleven, I dug out the auditorium with my father and helped pour the concrete. We are not going anywhere. We helped to build this neighborhood one business at a time, and it can be lost one building at a time. We have held out against times when those who are tearing down the neighborhood seem to be winning. But, like many others, we intend to keep the East Village a vibrant arts community.

I am at a loss to understand the quote from Shepard Sobel that he is “… disappointed the East Village is losing a theatrical venue to commercial enterprise..." Theatre 80 has been the jewel of the off-broadway theaters since my father built it, and we opened in the mid 1960s.

Our theater saw the opening of "You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown", was the home of the Manhattan Festival Ballet, and was the first full time film revival house. For many years Noche Flamenca has performed to sold out audiences.

I have no idea the meaning or source of this information. As managing agent for the Otway family, owners of Theatre 80, I state categorically, we intend to remain a theater. We have turned down offers for other uses of this theater which would destroy the auditorium.

Please be assured that we welcome offers from theater companies to lease this theater.

For some reason, at the time that I did the post Thursday, I didn't make the connection that Lorcan is the son of Howard and Florence Otway. Many of you likely know Lorcan or have at least seen him taking photos in Tompkins Square Park and elsewhere. The Villager profiled Lorcan last August.

I also had the chance to see his work last August in the exhibit "East Village Commons: A Loving Portrayal of a Neighborhood." Here is some of Lorcan's work via Flickr.

Theatre 80 sign via Warsze on Flickr.

Indeed

Thanks to Karate Boogaloo for curating this....

"Bid farewell to a unique New York staple the likes of which the opera world will never see again"

"After 60 years of presenting affordable and ambitious opera to the denizens of downtown Manhattan, the landmark Amato Opera Company closes its doors for good [Sunday] with its final production: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.... Fittingly, these performances are sold out, but fans and supporters may wish to show up anyway — if not in hopes of snagging a last-minute cancellation ticket, then to at the least bid farewell to a unique New York staple the likes of which the opera world will never see again." (Playbill)

[Photo via]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Caddy Swim: 1:15-1:30 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Be sure to read Rob's LES slum history (Save the Lower East Side!)

This Ain't the Summer of Love turns 1! So does Hunter-Gatherer!

Quickly!



An usual way of falling asleep/passing out (Hunter-Gatherer)

More shift shots (NYC Taxi Photo)

Modifying the Cosmopolitan Hotel (Lost City)

A light and noise update (Blah Blog Blah)

EV Grieve reader and frequent commenter Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk has a new Web site (Mykola Dementiuk)

The Biggest Pants find a open door at St. Brigid's (Little Stories and Maybe Poems From Now and Then)

"Step Up 3D" invades Thompson Street (BoweryBoogie)

Moe Tucker talks (Stupefaction)

Always a treat to look at Melanie's EV photos (Melanie)

"Keith McNally is on a mission to have the best-dressed staffers in town. The restaurateur is dressing hosts and managers at his eateries Balthazar and Pravda in $1,200 Etiqueta Negra suits." (Page Six)

Thanks to the City Room for recently adding EV Grieve to the paper's blogroll.

And a big thank you to the East Village Visitors Center for featuring EV Grieve on their local newsfeed.

And now: The Spawn of Lady Gaga



[Via Buzzfeed]