Damned if you do

The Damned, circa 1985-6 during the Unfortunate Outfits Era, with a Barry Ryan cover. (A video well worth your time watching.)

Which NYC neighborhood has the most happy hours? (One guess!)

We somehow missed this item at Grub Street Wednesday evening. It's info from a Happy Hours app via Village Voice Media. From Grub Street:

Using co-developer GoTime.com’s database of 972 happy hours in Manhattan, the Voice came up with a “happy hour density” (i.e., happy hours per square blocks) in various Manhattan neighborhoods south of Harlem. ... Not surprisingly, the East Village has the most happy hours, so expect to see this graphic presented as “Exhibit A” in a heated Community Board 3 meeting soon!

[Image via Grub Street]

Next stop, Board of Elections!

Earlier today, we brought you the sad news that Cherries, the adult gift-and-DVD shop on St. Mark's Place, has closed.

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Don Stahl for this shot... in which workers are removing the "viewing booths."

And, despite that juvenile headline, there's no truth to the rumor that the Board of Elections in the City of New York bought the old booths.

(See more of Don's photos on his Tumblr here.)

Today in April Fools Day gags on Avenue C

Outside the Sunburnt Cow near Ninth Street...

Only porn adult gift and DVD shop on St Mark's Place closes

Fresh off our conversations about one person's unhappiness over a certain sign and "bordello"-esque red curtains on Avenue A...

Cherries, the adult gift and DVD shop and what not, at 18 St. Mark's Place...

[Above photo by ShamrockTattoo via Flickr]

... has closed. We saw the 50 percent signs go up recently ... and last evening we walked by to see that it was gone... No goodbye sign — nothing... (And I recall reading on Eater that Michael "Bao" Huynh owned the lease here...??)

"Saturday Night Live" also featured a quick shot of Cherries during its intro last season... you can see it at the 1:24 mark...

Part 2, the sequel: Other East Village signs maybe someone can take issue with

Following up on our post from two Fridays ago ...

Today in cute photos of squirrels in Tompkins Square Park

Photo by EV Grieve wildlife correspondent Bobby Williams.

Your Chloe Sevigny-free roster of new Community Board 3 members

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer [yesterday] announced the 2011 appointees to Manhattan’s 12 Community Boards. The City Charter mandates that all Community Board appointments be made by April 1, and this year’s selection continues the trend toward greater diversity and expertise that began when President Stringer first took office.

“I have been committed to energizing and revitalizing Manhattan’s 12 Community Boards since taking office in 2006, and I am proud that this year’s appointees reflect these priorities,” said Stringer. “Today, our community boards are platforms for robust discussion of neighborhood issues and vehicles for ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz [editor's note].”

Anyway! here's the list of the Community Board 3 members... the names of the new appointees are in bold.

In case you can't make out the bold names...

Gary Tai
Charlotte Miles
David Conn
Natasha Dillon
Karen Blatt
Carlina Rivera
Jack Waters

And, as you noticed, no Chloe Sevigny!

Walls and memories left at Carmine's

Early last week, Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo reported that the bar and other fixtures from shuttered EV Grieve favorite Carmine's were sold and shipped to the Old Stein Inn near Annapolis, Md.

The 107-year old eatery at the South Street Seaport looked like this...


[Photo by Goggla via The Gog Log]

EV Grieve reader Tony Devers caught a look inside the other day. Ugh.

Tony has also sent along this shot... (Despite the weather, this was NOT taken last night...)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Hope fades for a new Carmine's at the Seaport

Bowery Wine Company will be closed on Sundays during April

What the sign says here on East First Street anyway...

The MTA's idea for lowering fares?

Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Festival of ideas (including the worm tents!)

We were invited today to attend a press briefing at the New Museum about the upcoming Festive of Ideas for the New City.... But! We didn't go... Work and stuff. However! Here's the news release with what's going on...

FESTIVAL OF IDEAS FOR THE NEW CITY TO TAKE PLACE MAY 4-8, 2011
Downtown Manhattan to Become a Dynamic Laboratory for Creative Thinking and Action Bringing Together Scores of Participants and Public Events

The Festival of Ideas for the New City is a major new collaborative initiative involving scores of Downtown organizations, from large universities to arts institutions and community groups, working together to affect change. The Festival is a first for New York and will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place from May 4-8, 2011, in locations around Downtown Manhattan in an area spanning East to West including the Lower East Side, the East Village, Soho, Nolita, and Chinatown — and will serve as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate.

The Festival of Ideas for the New City was initially conceived by the New Museum three years ago as a natural outgrowth of its ongoing commitment to public education and civic outreach. The concept quickly attracted a core group of Downtown ‘Organizing Partners’ who have met regularly over the past two years. The eleven Organizing Partners are: The Architectural League; Bowery Poetry Club; C-Lab/ Columbia University; Center for Architecture; The Cooper Union; The Drawing Center; New Museum (Founding Partner); New York University Wagner; PARC Foundation; Storefront for Art and Architecture; and Swiss Institute. Together, the Organizing Partners reached out to hundreds of other groups and organizations to participate in the Festival.

The Festival of Ideas for the New City is organized around three central programs:
• A three-day slate of symposia, lectures, and workshops with visionaries and leaders— including exemplary mayors from a variety of countries, forecasters, architects, artists, economists, and technology experts—who will address the four broad Festival themes: The Heterogeneous City; The Networked City; The Reconfigured City; and The Sustainable City. These events will take place at The Cooper Union, New York University, and the New Museum from Wednesday to Saturday, May 4-7.

• An innovative, minimal-waste, outdoor StreetFest will take place along the Bowery. More than seventy-five local grassroots organizations, small businesses, and non-profits will present model products and practices in a unique outdoor environment. The Festival will premiere a new environmentally inspired tent module commissioned for the Festival, as well as outdoor living rooms and inflatable structures. Visitors can expect cooking demonstrations with urban farmers, rooftop gardening classes, oral history projects, bike tours and valets, and a variety of affordable and healthy, locally grown, sustainable food options. The StreetFest will take place on Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m to 7 p.m.

• Over eighty independent projects, exhibitions, and performances, which expand on the Festival’s themes, will open at multiple festival partner venues Downtown, activating a broad geographic area. Projects include a solar powered mobile art studio; artist-commissioned roll-down, metal storefront gates; projections of poems in endangered languages on Lower East Side buildings; a prototype of an urban campground; a marathon event where architects will present their ideas about reconfiguring public space in a rapid fire format; an exhibit exploring the political, economic and social relevance of preservation and its role in architectural thinking; and a wide range of other activities exploring ideas for the future. These events will open Saturday evening, May 7, and Sunday, May 8.

Among the questions to be addressed through Festival programs are: What makes the city worth living in? How can we encourage and preserve the positive qualities of the city? How can technology be used to improve city life? Are there places or elements of the city that can be repurposed and re-imagined to serve new needs and populations? When we talk about sustainability, what do we mean? And, what can each of us do to contribute to a healthy, diverse, equitable, tolerant, innovative and fun place to live? Above all, how are the creative arts crucial to the above and how can they move conversation forward?

The Organizing Partners of the Festival are unified in their belief in the power of collaboration to make a difference and influence public awareness; together they advocate the central importance of creative capital to the quality of life in New York and any future city.

Still here? You can go to the website for more info. There's an awful lot going on with all this... there will be more in the days, weeks ahead, probably.

And Curbed has more on those worm tents int he above photo.

Date with the rain

Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams.

Meanwhile, in IMPORTANT Lindsay Lohan news

The "I Know Who Killed Me" star falls down while leaving Motor City Bar last night on Ludlow. (Via TMZ)

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Ailing man prevents mother-in-law from being robbed on First Avenue (The New York Post)

The art in the tree at the Cooper Square Hotel (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A panel Sunday on modern day New York street photography featuring Clayton Patterson, Matt Weber and Jake Dobkin (Nathan Kensinger Photography)

The misery of living in NYC (Runnin' Scared)

An update on SPURA project planning (BoweryBoogie)

Squirrel love in Tompkins Square Park (Nadie Se Conoce)

A comeback for Jeffrey's Meats in the Essex Street Market? (The Lo-Down)

Fifth Generation vs. the Blank Generation (Flaming Pablum)

An East Village ambassador for Japanese cuisine (The New York Times)

Inside Kenka on St. Mark's Place (Eater)

Photos from NYC's "best coffee shops" (Refinery29)

Inside the homes of two East Village chefs

Today, the Post's real-estate section goes inside the East Village homes of two local restaurateurs — chef Eduard Frauneder of Avenue C's Edi & the Wolf and Nicholas Morgenstern of Fifth Street's Goat Town.

From the Frauneder piece:

[T]he artwork that’s now occupying most of Frauneder’s time are the sketches of the outdoor space at Edi & the Wolf. He hopes to turn the space into a 35-seat “wine garden” this spring, with special “hyper-seasonal” tasting menus to be offered Thursday to Saturday.

“That rustic feeling inside will translate into the back yard,” he says. As will the tenor of the restaurant — one based on the heuriger’s casual, all-embracing approach.

“That’s the spirit of the East Village, too,” Frauneder says. “Where the politician sits next to the truck driver. Where they can eat something simple but good.”

And from the Morgenstern piece... he has a desiccated wasp nest in his apartment and he describes the communal area behind his East Third Street apartment as "an East Village version of 'Melrose Place.'"

[Frauneder photo by Zandy Mangold via the Post]

Note campaign begins against the Hot Chicks Room sign

Thanks to Dave on 7th for the photo taken outside the coming-soon Upright Citizens Brigade on Avenue A.

Previously.

The last 'Wave'

I had to remove the video box ... it was on auto-play...

"Blank City: The No Wave Years," a documentary about New York's DIY film scene, opens April 6 here.

Focusing on the mid-70s and 80s No Wave movement in New York, Celine Danhier’s new documentary paints a vivid portrait of the underground scene through interviews with its most notable fixtures: John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, Amos Poe, Vivienne Dick, and John Lurie among them. “New York was a very different and dangerous place to live then, like the Wild West,” says Danhier, whose film also references the East Village institutions that served as the genre’s unofficial headquarters, including the Mudd Club and CBGB. “It was run-down and almost bankrupt. But from that, this amazing do-it-yourself attitude grew.”

The clip above shows Steve Buscemi, Vincent Gallo and Mark Boone Junior in "The Way It Is" from 1985.

Via Nowness. Thanks to Shawn Chittle for the link.

A look at the more 'contemporized' Acme Bar & Grill

A few weeks ago, we first reported that Acme Bar & Grill was closing after 25 years on Great Jones Place. Then! Owner Bob Pollock apparently changed his mind...

Pollock told the following to Rebecca Marx at Fork in Road on March 16:

When it reopens, Pollock says, "it's not going to be the roadhouse look anymore. It will have a more contemporized look. Warm and at the same time contemporary. When you go in there, you'll have the reminiscence of Acme. It'll be on the walls."

After taking a look inside yesterday, it doesn't seem likely that any former regular would even recognize the walls...

Previously.

Perez Hilton posts pics of the EV stainless-steel slide condo, for some reason

A few weeks ago we posted some photos of the penthouse combo that's connected by a stainless steel slide in the A Building. Anyway, something prompted Perez Hilton to post some shots the other day...

The condo belongs to Phil (OMGClayAiken) Galfond. According to his PokeronAMac.com bio, he "is part of the 'Ship it Holla Ballas,' a crew of young poker players who live an extravagant lifestyle on their poker earnings. 'The Ballas travel the world in search of sweet parties, hot girls and play in some poker tournaments on the side.'"

He has come to the right place here.