Something to go to Coney for--the old-timey Vidbel circus has dancing poodles. [ATZ]
Restless offers Escape from New York recipes. [Restless]
It can't be all bad in the city when Larry David is more popular than Bono. [NYO]
Memories of Stuyvesant High School 20 years ago. [LOM]
Take a look at some of New York City's neon signs. [NYer]
Is Extra Place about to be Left Banked (again)? [EVG]
Monday, July 11, 2011
Dress Suits to Hire
The mystery building on Second Avenue and 5th Street has acquired an unfortunate new decoration.
A flowered curtain has been hung halfway up the second-story window. It covers from view the dusty, plastic-shrouded dinner jacket that has been displayed there for decades, capturing the imaginations of curious passersby who bother to look up.
today, my flickr
Goggla alerted us to the change, saying in a panic, "I walked by the 'haunted' 84 2nd Ave this morning only to find a floral bedsheet covering the window! I just knew something was going on with this place... A couple of months ago, I saw a work crew taking wood and junk out of the ground floor from the door that has the padlock on it. What do you think is going on?"
"I was just thinking this morning that it could very well be that the suit has been in the window since the day I was born and that thought thrilled and fascinated me...and then I rounded the corner and saw that sheet. I hope I've not cursed the place, but something about it has been making me nervous lately."
today, my flickr
We're all a little nervous about #84. There are those of us who watch it and wait, anxiously, for the day when it will be sold, when a multi-millionaire will turn it into a grand mansion, or the ground floor will be converted into a trendy farm-to-table restaurant, and all the mystery will be sucked away.
A few years ago, Jill did some deep investigative work on the place and its grisly history, discovering this news item from the January 18, 1974 New York Times: "From the Police Blotter: The nude body of a 40-year-old woman propietor of a tailor shop that rents tuxedos on the Lower East Side was found bludgeoned to death..."
As a neighbor told Jill, "The top floor is exactly the way it was when the daughter was murdered and you can still see the powder where the cops dusted for fingerprints."
June 26, my flickr
It seems the shop has stayed virtually frozen in time since that terrible moment. The dinner jacket, never hired out to a party, is white beneath its dusty plastic, and the shirt and tie are the orange sherbet color of baby aspirin. Above hangs a crooked neon sign announcing DRESS SUITS TO HIRE. The ITS in SUITS is broken and dangling.
Those of us who watch and wait dread the day when this melancholy tableau will disappear. Now, for reasons evermore mysterious, it has just halfway vanished.
A flowered curtain has been hung halfway up the second-story window. It covers from view the dusty, plastic-shrouded dinner jacket that has been displayed there for decades, capturing the imaginations of curious passersby who bother to look up.
today, my flickr
Goggla alerted us to the change, saying in a panic, "I walked by the 'haunted' 84 2nd Ave this morning only to find a floral bedsheet covering the window! I just knew something was going on with this place... A couple of months ago, I saw a work crew taking wood and junk out of the ground floor from the door that has the padlock on it. What do you think is going on?"
"I was just thinking this morning that it could very well be that the suit has been in the window since the day I was born and that thought thrilled and fascinated me...and then I rounded the corner and saw that sheet. I hope I've not cursed the place, but something about it has been making me nervous lately."
today, my flickr
We're all a little nervous about #84. There are those of us who watch it and wait, anxiously, for the day when it will be sold, when a multi-millionaire will turn it into a grand mansion, or the ground floor will be converted into a trendy farm-to-table restaurant, and all the mystery will be sucked away.
A few years ago, Jill did some deep investigative work on the place and its grisly history, discovering this news item from the January 18, 1974 New York Times: "From the Police Blotter: The nude body of a 40-year-old woman propietor of a tailor shop that rents tuxedos on the Lower East Side was found bludgeoned to death..."
As a neighbor told Jill, "The top floor is exactly the way it was when the daughter was murdered and you can still see the powder where the cops dusted for fingerprints."
June 26, my flickr
It seems the shop has stayed virtually frozen in time since that terrible moment. The dinner jacket, never hired out to a party, is white beneath its dusty plastic, and the shirt and tie are the orange sherbet color of baby aspirin. Above hangs a crooked neon sign announcing DRESS SUITS TO HIRE. The ITS in SUITS is broken and dangling.
Those of us who watch and wait dread the day when this melancholy tableau will disappear. Now, for reasons evermore mysterious, it has just halfway vanished.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
Sign the petition to save Jerry's Newsstand. [SJ]
Creepy advertising: TNT turns an empty storefront in Chelsea into a murder scene. [AW]
Bluestockings bookstore temporarily closes for "spruce up." [BB]
Take a look at the spiffed up Fulton Mall. [FNY]
Cosmos Diner, since 1978 on 23rd and 2nd, is under new management and closed for renovations. What will become of this good old joint now that it's across from "Manhattan's newest hit residence"?
Big Gay Ice Cream enters EV, tangles with alpha-crusty LES Jewels. [EVG]
And the frozen-treatifying of 7th St. continues with artisanal popsicles. [PS]
But the lemonade guy keeps it old school. [EVC]
Boardwalk Empire, Lucky Luciano, and the East Village. [GVSHP]
Playboy exhibit opens July 15. [NYO]
Creepy advertising: TNT turns an empty storefront in Chelsea into a murder scene. [AW]
Bluestockings bookstore temporarily closes for "spruce up." [BB]
Take a look at the spiffed up Fulton Mall. [FNY]
Cosmos Diner, since 1978 on 23rd and 2nd, is under new management and closed for renovations. What will become of this good old joint now that it's across from "Manhattan's newest hit residence"?
Big Gay Ice Cream enters EV, tangles with alpha-crusty LES Jewels. [EVG]
And the frozen-treatifying of 7th St. continues with artisanal popsicles. [PS]
But the lemonade guy keeps it old school. [EVC]
Boardwalk Empire, Lucky Luciano, and the East Village. [GVSHP]
Playboy exhibit opens July 15. [NYO]
Hojo's Lost Newsstand
We've lost one of my favorite newsstands.
2010
This one stood in Times Square for many years in front of the Howard Johnson's. When they tore down 1551 Broadway and put up the hideous, digital mess that is American Eagle Outfitters, it was only a matter of time before the little green stand was bulldozed and replaced with a Cemusa box.
today
The stand didn't fit with the new Times Square. Every time I saw it, I remembered Howard Johnson's and the way things used to be. The battered little stand had a humanity about it. It stood out from the brushed-steel and glass crowd in its green skin, its yellow and red sign, its sides loaded with magazines.
What replaced it is not just any Cemusa box, but a digital box, the sides equipped with television screens flashing ads for Dunkin Donuts and Coca-Cola, showing the weather report. It's another dead thing.
Now the New Times Square and American Eagle's tower of televisions have the newsstand they deserve.
See Also:
Another Newsstand
Union Square Newsstand
Jerry's Newsstand
& Lots more about Bloomberg's destruction of the old newsstands
2010
This one stood in Times Square for many years in front of the Howard Johnson's. When they tore down 1551 Broadway and put up the hideous, digital mess that is American Eagle Outfitters, it was only a matter of time before the little green stand was bulldozed and replaced with a Cemusa box.
today
The stand didn't fit with the new Times Square. Every time I saw it, I remembered Howard Johnson's and the way things used to be. The battered little stand had a humanity about it. It stood out from the brushed-steel and glass crowd in its green skin, its yellow and red sign, its sides loaded with magazines.
What replaced it is not just any Cemusa box, but a digital box, the sides equipped with television screens flashing ads for Dunkin Donuts and Coca-Cola, showing the weather report. It's another dead thing.
Now the New Times Square and American Eagle's tower of televisions have the newsstand they deserve.
See Also:
Another Newsstand
Union Square Newsstand
Jerry's Newsstand
& Lots more about Bloomberg's destruction of the old newsstands
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
In "Last Days of the Deadbeats," Matt Harvey remembers when Mars Bar seemed "like a beautifully decayed hulk of a forlorn ship on the edge of an apocalyptic planet." [NYP]
Mars Bar tells polo-shirted Observer reporters to go fuck themselves, again and again. [NYO]
"The era of Bowery bums, punks and junkies is long gone. Which, if you lived and were sober in the neighborhood back then, we suspect you would agree is a good thing." [Gothamist]
City "finally determined to erect a public urinal...at Astor Place, the cost to be about $2,400." [BK]
Artisanal soda jerk: “When the older people come in here and start talking about the sodas they used to get, I almost want to say, ‘I don’t care about your memories.' ...Don’t screw this up for these kids by putting it in the past. This is happening now.” [NYT]
More artisanal blah, blah, blah for the overcrowded East Village streets. [EVG]
Sting's kid buys a luxury condo on Orchard Street. [NYO]
Wal-Mart keeps trying to buy Manhattan. [Racked]
Mars Bar tells polo-shirted Observer reporters to go fuck themselves, again and again. [NYO]
"The era of Bowery bums, punks and junkies is long gone. Which, if you lived and were sober in the neighborhood back then, we suspect you would agree is a good thing." [Gothamist]
City "finally determined to erect a public urinal...at Astor Place, the cost to be about $2,400." [BK]
Artisanal soda jerk: “When the older people come in here and start talking about the sodas they used to get, I almost want to say, ‘I don’t care about your memories.' ...Don’t screw this up for these kids by putting it in the past. This is happening now.” [NYT]
More artisanal blah, blah, blah for the overcrowded East Village streets. [EVG]
Sting's kid buys a luxury condo on Orchard Street. [NYO]
Wal-Mart keeps trying to buy Manhattan. [Racked]
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
A message to the yuppies of the LES on St. Mark's Place:
Romy runs into a persistent shoe fetishist--and also, maybe, the Queen of Holland. [WIC]
How will the new owners renovate the Hotel Chelsea? [Curbed]
Watch the NYPD detonate a bunch of illegal fireworks. [BB]
The second-story businesses of 6th Avenue. [LC]
"New York City used to be a city of art, music and culture. It's become a place where you either have money or you don't and if you don't--fuck off. It's come to that and it's disgusting! The city has lost its edge. I look at the big picture. Everyone has been dumbed-down to not thrive to be an artist." [NC]
Vintage video about bookmobiles and Brooklyn. [BK'ology]
A silver superhero gets trashed at Mars Bar. [TGL]
LES Jewels' penis not allowed on Facebook. [EVG]
Yesterday's sunset was pretty great. [Gothamist]
A walkabout at Edgemere. [NYS]
Romy runs into a persistent shoe fetishist--and also, maybe, the Queen of Holland. [WIC]
How will the new owners renovate the Hotel Chelsea? [Curbed]
Watch the NYPD detonate a bunch of illegal fireworks. [BB]
The second-story businesses of 6th Avenue. [LC]
"New York City used to be a city of art, music and culture. It's become a place where you either have money or you don't and if you don't--fuck off. It's come to that and it's disgusting! The city has lost its edge. I look at the big picture. Everyone has been dumbed-down to not thrive to be an artist." [NC]
Vintage video about bookmobiles and Brooklyn. [BK'ology]
A silver superhero gets trashed at Mars Bar. [TGL]
LES Jewels' penis not allowed on Facebook. [EVG]
Yesterday's sunset was pretty great. [Gothamist]
A walkabout at Edgemere. [NYS]
Gods of Times Square
"The world is upside-down. With everything gone wrong. Everything's gone wrong," says an 82-year-old street preacher in Richard Sandler's film Gods of Times Square. "They're closing up the little shops and they want that big money. They're closing everything up in New York City."
Shot across the 1990s, the film focuses on the Bible thumpers and doomsayers of Times Square, and in the process gives us a wild and wonderful glimpse of a lost world. Times Square looks smaller and darker than it is today, sort of brown, as if stained with tartar. The buildings are mostly made of brick. They're not very tall. The sidewalks are busy, but uncrowded.
The New Yorker reviewed the film in 1999, saying it's "like discovering a box of old photographs. Here are the sidewalk preachers, pleasure seekers, and urban malcontents that populated Times Square before it was cleaned up."
The people in this world are crazy, passionate, filled with wild ideas. They tell stories. They sing and beg and stamp out the devil. They give mystical answers to simple questions. One shy young man believes he is the second coming of Jesus and waits for his moment to marry Madonna and become a rock star magician. Another man squats in the street outside Howard Johnson's and takes a long, lazy shit.
On the closing day of the beloved, lost Grand Luncheonette, the owner's wife says, "There's no room on the same block for Walt Disney's and [the Grand Luncheonette]. It's a new wave. It's a new world. It's over...It's finished. This whole way of life is over."
Reverend Billy is here, with his hair still black, preaching against "Mickey fucking Mouse." He goes into the Disney store and bellows to the tourists, "Mickey Mouse is the antichrist...and the Disney store is turning Manhattan into a theme park!" We see a new Times Square arise. The tourists flood in. People look cleaner, whiter. We know what happens next.
It's all gone. The buildings, the people, the spirit. All of it is gone. What happens to all that energy? Where does end up?
Shot across the 1990s, the film focuses on the Bible thumpers and doomsayers of Times Square, and in the process gives us a wild and wonderful glimpse of a lost world. Times Square looks smaller and darker than it is today, sort of brown, as if stained with tartar. The buildings are mostly made of brick. They're not very tall. The sidewalks are busy, but uncrowded.
The New Yorker reviewed the film in 1999, saying it's "like discovering a box of old photographs. Here are the sidewalk preachers, pleasure seekers, and urban malcontents that populated Times Square before it was cleaned up."
The people in this world are crazy, passionate, filled with wild ideas. They tell stories. They sing and beg and stamp out the devil. They give mystical answers to simple questions. One shy young man believes he is the second coming of Jesus and waits for his moment to marry Madonna and become a rock star magician. Another man squats in the street outside Howard Johnson's and takes a long, lazy shit.
On the closing day of the beloved, lost Grand Luncheonette, the owner's wife says, "There's no room on the same block for Walt Disney's and [the Grand Luncheonette]. It's a new wave. It's a new world. It's over...It's finished. This whole way of life is over."
Reverend Billy is here, with his hair still black, preaching against "Mickey fucking Mouse." He goes into the Disney store and bellows to the tourists, "Mickey Mouse is the antichrist...and the Disney store is turning Manhattan into a theme park!" We see a new Times Square arise. The tourists flood in. People look cleaner, whiter. We know what happens next.
It's all gone. The buildings, the people, the spirit. All of it is gone. What happens to all that energy? Where does end up?
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