More Christmas tree stand choices for you

Just adding to Friday's post on the arrival of the East Village Christmas tree stands/holiday markets/whatever.

The stands are up and running on East Houston at Essex ...

...and outside Whole Foods Bowery...

So they join the stands on East 14th Street and First Avenue ... outside Rite Aid on First Avenue ... and outside St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue... Was thinking about doing a price comparison, but, you know, the trees aren't marked. And the sales often seem subjective... with plenty of bargaining.

In recent years, I bought trees at Stuyvesant Grocery and East Village Farms. And they're both closed. Maybe I'll wait for someone to throw his or her tree away...

Time Warner Cable out

Again. Guess I'll go hog a few tables somewhere for free WiFi for the afternoon. Hope that you don't mind!

So what's your Time Warner Internet alternative? Time to change.

Report: Two teens wanted in youth basketball scam

Cops are looking for two teen thieves they say are responsible for several East Village robberies, according to the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post today.

The suspects, believed to be 14 years old, have been going into local businesses under the guise of raising money for a youth basketball team and then swiping phones and computers, police said.

One teen reportedly distracts the store owner while the other teen grabs the electronics. The two are reportedly responsible for five thefts dating back to July.

Noted

From the EVG Twitter account... pretty empty streets this morning ... this one was on First Avenue between St. Mark's and East Ninth Street... the other was on East Ninth Street just west of Second Avenue...

Saw the NYPD ticket 2 cyclists within minutes this a.m. Running a red light? twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) November 24, 2012

A 'fearless' break-in attempt on East 9th Street

A reader passed along this information ...

I left my building today, 233 East 9th Street, around 2 p.m. to run errands and I bumped into a man on my stoop. He said to me "take a hot shower, then take a cold shower, then take a hot shower." I didn't think anything of it other than he was just a kook — our stoop is always used by eccentric people waiting for the bus — and I went to run my errands.

When I came back about 20 minutes later, he followed me into the vestibule, then attempted to follow me into the lobby. I thought he might be a left-of-center fill-in for my Super over the holiday weekend. I asked him who he was and he said "the landlord."

I knew he wasn't and told him I was going to call the police if he didn't allow me to close the door to keep him out. He started rambling on about how I could obtain American citizenship by going to the consulate and filling out a form. Not wanting to break the door, I went to my apartment and called the Super, the MGMT company and 911. While I did this, he proceeded to drag ALL of the bagged garbage on the curb into our building, leaving it all over the lobby.

Waiting for the police, I saw him from my fire escape running over on 9th then taking a right on Second Ave, heading south. The police arrived shortly after and I gave them the details and a description.

Tonight around 5 p.m., I heard a commotion in the hallway. Police were canvasing the building. The guy got back into the building and was trying to break into apartments. The police didn't find him on their search.

Description

white male
5' 10 - 5' -11
early 50s
thin build
longish gray hair
hunter green suede coat
light colored jeans
silver traveling luggage

He is pretty fearless and determined to keep going about his business despite the intervention of me and my neighbors. He's obviously hanging out in the neighborhood and if he's doing this to our building, he may have tried this elsewhere.

[Image via Google]

A moment with Giuseppi Logan in Tompkins Square Park

A familiar sight in Tompkins Square Park... the renowned jazz musician will be sitting in on a set with the Matt Lavelle Quintet tomorrow night at 10 at the Stone on Avenue C ... (Details here.)

Also picked up two of his CDs for holiday gifts... he's selling them for $10...

For further reading in the Times from April:
Giuseppi Logan’s Second Chance

Bottoms up for Anna Kournikova on Avenue C

EVG reader Riad spotted this framed poster of retired tennis star/spank men's magazine favorite Anna Kournikova in the trash on Avenue C and East Ninth Street...

Why would someone throw this away?

When the other boot drops

Spotted on East 10th Street between Avenue B and C... photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

This is your Captain singing...

Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, and co-founder of The Damned) with "Glad it's all Over" circa 1984...

First Christmas tree for Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

And now, a very special holiday post about Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street... via Kita's co-master, Jose Garcia...

Supervising the purchase of her first East Village Christmas/druid tree. Joseph is the young man who sold it to us at St Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. A very pleasant fellow. And ours was apparently the first tree they've sold this year. They clapped for us and everything. Kita was impressed and is excited for the holidays.

On the next episode: Kita meets Zoltar

Previously on EV Grieve:
The further adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The further (often truly) amazing adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Noted

From the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post today:

Detectives are seeking whoever e-mailed a pornographic photo of a child and a man to a Lower East Side woman, sources said.

The 29-year-old woman told investigators that the image came via her Instagram account at 7 p.m. Nov. 12, and that she didn’t know the people in it.

[Updated] Trees arrive to be ornamented

And, as promised, these green things Christmas Trees arrived today at two East Village Green Things Christmas Tree Stands... First Avenue and East 14th Street...

...and outside Rite Aid on First Avenue at East Fifth Street...

And I think the trees have arrived outside St. Mark's Church-on-the-Bowery too on Second Avenue....

Updated:

EVG reader John passed this shot this morning...

-----

And soon, you will also be able to hear the pudding singing in the copper...

The bells of St. Brigid's [VIDEO]

I was hanging around in Tompkins Square Park this morning... and I finally heard the bells coming from St. Brigid's on Avenue B... excuse the rushed quality to the video... dropped everything (50 pounds of bread for the rats, etc.) to record this...



A commenter had this to say on our post the other day:

Well, all you tin-eared tintinabulists....These are not real church bells---rather a clever assemblage of recorded sounds run through well placed speakers...And they aren't coordinated with real time merely an approximation-Can't the priest check his cell-phone to at least be accurate?...The original bell was amazing and it was removed and not reinstalled for reasons that remain a troubling mystery. These recorded sounds are horrible and as fake as Hostess Twinkies. As a neighbor who lives quite close to the church I wish they would stop them completely.

Previously.

Tonight, 'The Last Waltz,' a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Sandy

From the EV Grieve inbox... a free show tonight featuring 30 LES-based musicians at the Rockwood Music Hall on Allen Street...

We'll be donating proceeds to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which is a great local charity that is on the ground actively helping and fixing things in many of the hardest hit communities, including Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the Rockaways. You can even earmark what area you want your donations to go to, when you give.

Here is the event page on Facebook.

Noted

Never noticed this before outside the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street... given the reaction of neighbors, this sentiment seems about right...

A quick check on the Verizon wall

Been months since checked in here along East 13th Street at Second Avenue...

Should likely be painted brown again soon... unless Verizon has some other priorities these days...

Previously on EV Grieve:
First tag reappears on the Verizon building

Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

Verizon is going to blow the budget on brown paint

Silent night...

Keep getting my holidays mixed up... In any event, St. Brigid's tonight...

Thanksgiving for Sandy Survivors

Volunteers are at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery preparing for the free Thanksgiving meal for people displaced by Superstorm Sandy... 1-4 today...

Per @AMDuross on Twitter — 11am lots of people from EV and other neighborhoods rolling in with donations. Smells amazing.

Holiday tree stands ready for action

Picking up from the earlier post today... holiday tree stands are up and ready at two other neighbor spots... First Avenue and East 14th Street...

...and Second Avenue at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery... looking forward to the arrival of the Holiday Hovel here... (cooler than the Creepy Camper...)

Our tree sources say that the, uh, trees will arrive tomorrow at the First Avenue/14th Street location...

Previously.

On Thanksgiving, remembering the turkey of El Jardín del Paraíso

There is a bit of a mystery surrounding the demise of the turkey who lived in El Jardín del Paraíso on East Fourth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D ... as previously noted, flyers about the turkey's death (from "neglect") were placed by someone in adjacent residential buildings ...

EVG reader Emily Iason took these photos on Oct. 30 ... the day after Superstorm Sandy... looking well...

Meanwhile, other feathered residents are OK there... per these photos by Bobby Williams last week...