*Everyday Chatter

Went by the shuttered Nikos yesterday, hoping to find it still open, a few offerings left on the racks. The gates were closed, the shop emptied, only the sun-faded journal covers in the windows. I took a few pictures anyway. A man peered in alongside me. "You could get anything here," he said sadly, "I knew this would happen. It was only a matter of time." A fellow Jeremiah.


Why does it seem like a super-exclusive club that disguises itself as a used bookstore, in a town and a neighborhood that is helplessly watching its bookstores die one after another, is trying to induce in its neighbors feelings of impotent rage? [Grub St]

Amanda Burden's underlying plan for the EV/LES: "we want five- to seven-story buildings and small retail on the first and second floors... By encouraging retail on the side streets and allowing developers more floors in their buildings..." [NYDN] via [EVG]

Coverage of the Captured screening and interview with Clayton Patterson: "New York now is a museum, a relic. It's over." [NYO] via [EVG]

August 22: Another chance to see Captured, with Q&A. This time at the New Museum--you know, that place that's helping to change the face of the Bowery? The screening is part of their Bowery Artist Tribute, because from now on, Bowery artists will only exist in a museum. Kind of illustrates perfectly Patterson's sentiment above, doesn't it?

Diner-savior Michael Perlman gives a history of the Ridgewood Theater he is trying to save. Sign the petition. [JB]