5/7 at Dixon Place: Author and JVNY guest blogger Julian Brash talks about how The Bloomberg Way affects artists and community in NYC. Get tickets here.
5/14: A memorial for Lenny Waller, 6:30-9:30 PM at Paddles (maybe NSFW).
5/2 - 5/19: Before it's gone, the Children's Aid Society in the Village is having a show of staff members' artwork--EV local artist and activist Sally Young is included.
Superdive is done for. [EVG]
Enjoy the vintage NYC photos of Gita Lenz. [DO]
Who knew health inspectors rushed in like a SWAT team? [COS]
No Longer Empty brings more art to E. Houston. [BB]
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
Crowds at Ground Zero celebrate Bin Laden's death. [Gothamist]
Depressing pictures of the Amato Opera House being cleaned out. [MM] via EVG
NYC on rock album covers. [ENY]
The archaeology of home in an East Village tenement. [GL]
Chico brings toothy royalty to the Bowery. [BB] & [EVG]
It's Bird Week in the city. [CR]
Plaza sues the Oak Room for drugs, vulgarity, and burlesque. [Grub]
Take a dip in the forgotten streams and lakes of Queens. [FNY]
Neither More Nor Less returns to the blogosphere.
Depressing pictures of the Amato Opera House being cleaned out. [MM] via EVG
NYC on rock album covers. [ENY]
The archaeology of home in an East Village tenement. [GL]
Chico brings toothy royalty to the Bowery. [BB] & [EVG]
It's Bird Week in the city. [CR]
Plaza sues the Oak Room for drugs, vulgarity, and burlesque. [Grub]
Take a dip in the forgotten streams and lakes of Queens. [FNY]
Neither More Nor Less returns to the blogosphere.
Dime-A-Dance
Alex at Flaming Pablum recently posted a link to a bunch of photos of "Old School New York." In that bunch were a few rare, full-color views of vanished Times Square dime-a-dance joints.
Above the Whelan's drugstore, next to the RKO Palace, the Parisian Danceland, which I wrote about here, is seen mostly in blue with its painted dancing girls in color behind the windows.
That little building was demolished and replaced with a Double-Tree hotel.
This shot of the Orpheum Dance Palace is a rarer one. You just never see it in photos, but there it is, sitting atop Child's, which would later become the Howard Johnson's of poor, demolished 1551 Broadway. And where the Orpheum used to be, later came the Gaiety.
This dance palace had been going strong since 1917. Henry Miller was a regular customer.
Lastly, the photos turned up another Dime-a-Dance joint, this one at 48th and Broadway. The Tango Palace promises "beautiful girls to dance with" above the McGinnis of Sheepshead Bay, known for its roast beef.
While dancing, could you smell the roasting beef below? Today, where all that exuberant neon used to be, there's nothing but the glass box of the Morgan Stanley Building.
A 1970 Village Voice article took readers inside the Tango Palace, and it's quite a wonderful piece. Read it all here. An excerpt:
"Upstairs, the scene is the rim of a store-bought decadent nightmare. You're announced by a buzzer that opens the door, and inside a bevy of painted beauties sit in a horseshoe-shaped vinyl pit, legs crossed, toe-exposing spike-heeled slippers flopping in unison, keeping time with Artie Shaw, one of the Dorseys or Glenn Miller playing a moonlight serenade. A spinning mirrored ball plays irregular spots of light across their faces, and you can see that they're smiling, just like the dime-a-dance girls in the showcase downstairs. Only now those smiles cost $7.50 a half hour."
Above the Whelan's drugstore, next to the RKO Palace, the Parisian Danceland, which I wrote about here, is seen mostly in blue with its painted dancing girls in color behind the windows.
That little building was demolished and replaced with a Double-Tree hotel.
This shot of the Orpheum Dance Palace is a rarer one. You just never see it in photos, but there it is, sitting atop Child's, which would later become the Howard Johnson's of poor, demolished 1551 Broadway. And where the Orpheum used to be, later came the Gaiety.
This dance palace had been going strong since 1917. Henry Miller was a regular customer.
Lastly, the photos turned up another Dime-a-Dance joint, this one at 48th and Broadway. The Tango Palace promises "beautiful girls to dance with" above the McGinnis of Sheepshead Bay, known for its roast beef.
While dancing, could you smell the roasting beef below? Today, where all that exuberant neon used to be, there's nothing but the glass box of the Morgan Stanley Building.
A 1970 Village Voice article took readers inside the Tango Palace, and it's quite a wonderful piece. Read it all here. An excerpt:
"Upstairs, the scene is the rim of a store-bought decadent nightmare. You're announced by a buzzer that opens the door, and inside a bevy of painted beauties sit in a horseshoe-shaped vinyl pit, legs crossed, toe-exposing spike-heeled slippers flopping in unison, keeping time with Artie Shaw, one of the Dorseys or Glenn Miller playing a moonlight serenade. A spinning mirrored ball plays irregular spots of light across their faces, and you can see that they're smiling, just like the dime-a-dance girls in the showcase downstairs. Only now those smiles cost $7.50 a half hour."
Saturday, April 30, 2011
35 Cooper Coming Down
Some sad, but unsurprising, breaking news this weekend. After a recent meeting with concerned neighbors, from which they emerged optimistic, the owner of 35 Cooper Square has communicated via his lawyer to council member Rosie Mendez about his final decision on the fate of the beloved building:
The key sentence in this excerpt is: "Unfortunately, it was concluded that it would not be feasible to develop the site with the building or any significant portion of it remaining." 35 Cooper Square is coming down. As Grieve noted yesterday, more scaffolding has arrived at the building.
The owner will be making a financial contribution to the Landmarks Conservancy to help document the histories of Federal buildings such as #35, for which "creation of an historic record is all that can be done."
Previously:
The History of 35 Cooper Square
35 in Scaffolding
35's Personal Jane Jacobs
The key sentence in this excerpt is: "Unfortunately, it was concluded that it would not be feasible to develop the site with the building or any significant portion of it remaining." 35 Cooper Square is coming down. As Grieve noted yesterday, more scaffolding has arrived at the building.
The owner will be making a financial contribution to the Landmarks Conservancy to help document the histories of Federal buildings such as #35, for which "creation of an historic record is all that can be done."
Previously:
The History of 35 Cooper Square
35 in Scaffolding
35's Personal Jane Jacobs
Friday, April 29, 2011
Rally for a Hospital
The former and still vacant Artepasta space on Greenwich Avenue has become the de facto action center for demanding a new hospital in the Village since St. Vincent's shuttered and was earmarked for condos.
Every window is filled from the inside with flyers and posters announcing the Rally tomorrow at 2:00 and asking, "Are you ready to trade your life for a condo?"
I don't know who is behind the ever-growing installation of flyers, but Artepasta was one of the 20 businesses that closed here since St. Vincent's shut down. Reported Crain's, "Many of the survivors are struggling, reporting revenue plunges of 30%, 40% and more."
What will this part of town look like when its businesses are spawned and supported by luxe condos instead of a neighborhood hospital?
We're going to see more major changes to the culture here. Come to the rally tomorrow at 2pm.
Every window is filled from the inside with flyers and posters announcing the Rally tomorrow at 2:00 and asking, "Are you ready to trade your life for a condo?"
I don't know who is behind the ever-growing installation of flyers, but Artepasta was one of the 20 businesses that closed here since St. Vincent's shut down. Reported Crain's, "Many of the survivors are struggling, reporting revenue plunges of 30%, 40% and more."
What will this part of town look like when its businesses are spawned and supported by luxe condos instead of a neighborhood hospital?
We're going to see more major changes to the culture here. Come to the rally tomorrow at 2pm.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
In the Strand's window, excellent advice from John Waters:
Check out John Waters' curated collection at The Strand, a bunch of books that he says "will help you become a well-rounded, happy neurotic who can finally reject your own guilt and shame and embrace the outer limits of human behavior."
Pop-up bookshop sells one book: “This makes books feel like an art installation,” said the author. “We should care about them.” [CR]
Saying goodbye to Beat-era poet and filmmaker Ira Cohen, who just passed away. [WIC]
The horrifying future of Coney Island. [Curbed]
The swizzle stick madness continues. Chum's Mum adds a pic to the VNY flickr pool and Marty After Dark hunts one down at the Brandy Library.
Is your home included in the East Village preservation map? [EVG]
Take a Forgotten NY Tour this season. [FNY]
Obama in NYC: as he looked around the room, "crowded with sequined women in Christian Louboutin designer shoes," Obama said, "Everybody here almost by definition has lived out that American dream. The question is, will that same story be told by our children and grandchildren? Will it be told by the folks who do all the work here in New York City and across the country, washing dishes?" [via Gothamist]
Check out John Waters' curated collection at The Strand, a bunch of books that he says "will help you become a well-rounded, happy neurotic who can finally reject your own guilt and shame and embrace the outer limits of human behavior."
Pop-up bookshop sells one book: “This makes books feel like an art installation,” said the author. “We should care about them.” [CR]
Saying goodbye to Beat-era poet and filmmaker Ira Cohen, who just passed away. [WIC]
The horrifying future of Coney Island. [Curbed]
The swizzle stick madness continues. Chum's Mum adds a pic to the VNY flickr pool and Marty After Dark hunts one down at the Brandy Library.
Is your home included in the East Village preservation map? [EVG]
Take a Forgotten NY Tour this season. [FNY]
Obama in NYC: as he looked around the room, "crowded with sequined women in Christian Louboutin designer shoes," Obama said, "Everybody here almost by definition has lived out that American dream. The question is, will that same story be told by our children and grandchildren? Will it be told by the folks who do all the work here in New York City and across the country, washing dishes?" [via Gothamist]
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
*Everyday Chatter
Serendipitously, after posting We Love Your Dog! over at The Grumbler, I came upon Michael Sean Edwards' "No Dogs Allowed" flickr set--photos of dogs left outside a cafe on Tompkins Square Park. As it should be. And a great series.
photo: Michael Sean Edwards
Watching the East Village turn into Midtown. [EVG]
Today is the last day of business for Moe's in Clinton Hill, reports a reader who says the 10-year-old bar is not "Mars Bar, Sophie's, or anything of the like. But it is a special place to me, warm, welcoming, far and away the most racially mixed dive bar crowd I've ever seen. And a great establishment." Go today to say goodbye.
Remembering the Wigwam Bar and the Mohawk Indian community of Brooklyn. [CGP]
See the great downtown poets of the 1970s at Anthology tomorrow and Friday night, including Ted Berrigan, Tim Dlugos, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Peter Orlovsky, Ron Padgett, and lots more. [AFA]
This looks good: A book about why we get annoyed by annoying people. [NYT]
photo: Michael Sean Edwards
Watching the East Village turn into Midtown. [EVG]
Today is the last day of business for Moe's in Clinton Hill, reports a reader who says the 10-year-old bar is not "Mars Bar, Sophie's, or anything of the like. But it is a special place to me, warm, welcoming, far and away the most racially mixed dive bar crowd I've ever seen. And a great establishment." Go today to say goodbye.
Remembering the Wigwam Bar and the Mohawk Indian community of Brooklyn. [CGP]
See the great downtown poets of the 1970s at Anthology tomorrow and Friday night, including Ted Berrigan, Tim Dlugos, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Peter Orlovsky, Ron Padgett, and lots more. [AFA]
This looks good: A book about why we get annoyed by annoying people. [NYT]
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