20 years ago on Avenue A...

Earlier today we posted photos of Avenue A and Sixth from 2000 to illustrate how quickly things change... EV Grieve reader Tony passed along a very similar shot from 1990...

Out back at the Grassroots

The other day I caught a glimpse of the open space behind the Grassroots on St. Mark's Place... the door is always closed... used just as an emergency exit... I was surprised to see it open and took a quick peak ... Imagine the horror show out back if majority owner Jim Stratton ever decided to apply for an outdoor license ...




In any event, there are absolutely NO plans for this... it is a nice space, though...

Fresh paint for the rolldown gates at Stuyvesant Grocery

The rolldown gates at the fire-damaged Stuyvesant Grocery at 14th Street and Avenue A received a fresh coat of paint late last week...



...and, as the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) noted, the gate was quickly tagged...



More from the GFOEVG: "Meanwhile, if you put your face to that opening, you get a nasty whiff of the rotting goods inside. Flies, and I'm certain rats, abound."

We're still awaiting word on what is happening to this corner...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

10 years ago on Avenue A and Sixth Street

A common theme hereabouts is how quickly things change in the neighborhood... as it always has. Photos from EV Grieve reader Lambert Jack help illustrate this point... He came across some photos that he took in 2000 on Avenue A and Sixth Street... See for yourself how much has changed in these last 10 years... the businesses that have come and gone...




and a few bonus shots....

Easy as 123 eeeeeeeeeee

We were watching a worker up on 123 Third Ave. at 14th Street the other day ... he was wearing a safety harness and everything ... Still, given our fear of heights, seeing this made us a little queasy...

Brazil 3, Ivory Coast 1

Just after 5 p.m. outside Esperanto on Avenue C at Ninth Street... Many thanks to EV Grieve reader Steve for the photos...

Noted

With these photos, EV Grieve reader Peter notes the continued deterioration of the Shepard Fairey mural on Houston and the Bowery... As he said, "Odd that the previous mural remained so untouched whereas Mr. Fairey's mural has seemingly been under attack since day one."

Indeed.






NYC the Blog noted the latest bout of vandalism... and counted 11 holes in the mural... Said Bucky Turco of ANIMAL last week: "At this point, unless someone lights it on fire, I really don’t care what happens to Shepard Fairey’s mural..."

He's not alone.

"An Absurdist Valentine to a disappearing City"

Here's part of a news release for a screening that I received the other day... I look forward to seeing this some day...

DIRTY OLD TOWN: a new gonzo narrative by young trio Jenner Furst, Daniel B Levin and Julia Willoughby Nason. Abel Ferrara presents this indie-feature ...

DIRTY OLD TOWN swirls around Billy's Antiques and Props as owner Billy Leroy faces eviction from his ramshackle tent off Bowery. With 72 hours to pay the rent, his urban Big Top draws in a troop of freaks, renegades and misfits. These strange characters form a colorful tableaux full of carnival pageantry, white lies and victimless crime, in a downtown slice of life that playfully blurs the line between reality and fiction.

The filmmakers spun this strange tale from their previous documentary, CAPTURED, which chronicled the transformation of the Lower East Side through the renegade lens of documentarian, artist and activist Clayton Patterson.

DIRTY OLD TOWN also showcases longtime actor Nicholas De Cegli, AKA Nicky D, a famous fixture in the New York City nightlife scene. Close friend Abel Ferrara refers to Nicky as "John Wayne" within this twisted going out of business story. There are also first time acting debuts from Paul Sevigny the restauranter and Club Guru, Ashley Graham the young full-bodied supermodel and Janell Shirtcliff, aspiring actress, model and wife of MGMT drummer Will Berman.

The filmmakers have used vibrant characters and locations, both real and fictional, to form an eclectic collage, working with available materials and turning film into found art. Executive Producer Marc Levin calls this project "An Absurdist Valentine to a disappearing City".

In more ways than one, DIRTY OLD TOWN reverberates the loss of many bohemian institutions Downtown and an on going change in the culture of New York City.

Leroy's actual landlord, the real estate visionary Tony Goldman, screened the film and despite being depicted as a frill-less curmudgeon, found the tale to be interesting and the irony to be laughable. For years Goldman has been a conscientious force in revitalizing neighborhoods, most famously Soho and South Beach Miami.

For more info visit on the film, go here.

DIRTY OLD TOWN from Blowback Productions on Vimeo.

Noted

These "Lost Duck" signs seem to be everywhere....here, on Second Street and Avenue A... (Thanks to EV Grieve reader Noah for this shot.)

From the EV Grieve Amity, Long Island Bureau

"Jaws" turns 35 this summer. (Christian Science Monitor)

Kingpin

Last August, we posted the six-minute documentary about Jimmy Tarangelo, aka the Man in the Van who has lived in his 20-foot-long Boise Cascade Aristocrat in the West Village for eight years.

Now, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Sean P. Dunne is back with another fascinating NYC character called "The Bowler," about a guy from Staten Island who hustles bowling for a living.

The Bowler from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Life of the bike party

13th Street near Avenue A.

Love story

A look back at Avenue A and Second Street

Well, we've had a lot of discussion this week about the future of Avenue A and Second Street where Graceland called home for 20-plus years... Many thanks to EV Grieve reader BaHa for this photo from the early 1980s... this is looking north on Avenue A at Second Street....



How about another upholstery shop here now instead of an Italian eatery, bank or 7-Eleven?

Inside 193 Avenue B

The Rev. Carlos Torres, senior pastor of the Elim Pentecostal Church, recently gave me a tour of 193 Avenue B, which was nearly lost during a fire in October 2006. This space between 11th Street and 12th Street was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou, then the Charles. The theater closed in 1975. At that time, Torres' uncle bought the space to use as a community center and place of worship.

Since the fire, Torres and his congregation have been renting space at another church on Avenue A. Here's a look inside the currently unoccupied building, which opened as the Bijou in 1926...




















There have been several plans to rebuild or redevelop the space. I'll have more on the future of this space another day. Thanks to Rev. Torres for the tour.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B
Inside the Charles
Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

Pool at Sophie's, 1988

Been awhile since we posted any photos by Michael Sean Edwards ... So! Here are a few from Sophie's circa 1988....




He has several more here on Flickr.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The East Village in photos from 1978-1985

Posts that I actually forgot to post: Warren the Ape slanders Warren

These are all around... saw them last weekend... and, uh, forgot to post...

So hot

On the Bowery. Hot Cheese Nachos. Perhaps the name of the band that I will never form.

Hope that AT&T's "more bars" campaign won't be used here

EV Grieve reader Michael Fivis notes the progress of the incoming AT&T store next to Lulu's Nail Salon on First Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

NYU's future ...rated T for Terrifying

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Lisa for this link from NY1.

See NYU's proposed future here.

(Fixed the links!)

Your August 2011 -- planned!

East Village Feed and several readers have pointed out the new teaser for the upcoming Smurfs movie.... which comes out in August 2011. Plan accordingly. No sign of the East Village yet....

Group doesn't want street fairs to suck as badly as they do

From the inbox!

Concluding that the vast majority of New York City street fairs are bland and repetitive, and in need of wholesale changes, the Center for an Urban Future today published a report that features ideas for improving these staples of summer from two dozen innovative New Yorkers, including the founders of successful markets like the New York City Greenmarket, Union Square Holiday Market, Brooklyn Flea and Chelsea Market.

The study, titled “New Visions for New York Street Fairs,” starts from the premise that the city’s current system of street fairs desperately need a makeover. It argues that large numbers of New Yorkers are dissatisfied with street fairs for a variety of reasons: there are so many of them that they quickly blend together (there were 321 of them in 2009); a majority of the vendors sell the same bland merchandise, such as tube socks, sunglasses and gyros; a handful of neighborhoods are inundated by the fairs, with a new one popping up almost every week; and with nearly a dozen street fairs on some weekends, the multiple street closures make driving or taking a cab through the city a nightmare. The study seeks to jumpstart a discussion about how to make these public events less generic, more interesting and better reflective of what’s unique about New York.

“New York’s street fairs have been a disappointment for too long,” says Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank. “It’s time to throw out the cookie-cutter approach and create street fairs that better reflect this incredibly unique and diverse city. There’s no reason to see the same vendors selling tube socks and gyros at almost every fair when New York has so many one-of-a-kind entrepreneurs and artists.”

A PDF of the full report is available here (PDF)