12th and A Falls

A tipster writes in to say that the shrouded building at 12th and A is gone: "they have completely demolished the building on the northeast corner of 12th and A (where the Raven used to be). They did it quietly, piece by piece, behind the screened scaffolding. There's nothing left but a little bit of the first floor exterior walls. I think i smell another ginormous east village condo on the way."



He includes gory pics of the destruction, where posted permits state only "interior renovation" and "replacement of non-load bearing brick walls." That must mean all the walls, because behind the shroud, that building is gone. Yet the FOR RENT signs remain. Is it a rush job? This angry neighbor sure thinks so.

Here's a peek inside, through the old door of the Raven, now with "newly installed skylight."





And, as a bonus, a shot of the final corner to fill up and its new tenant, Pappy's (?) Gourmet Corner, which replaces the old Metropolitan Funeral Home. I covered the other corners in a post not long ago. So far, nothing fancy (except for the use of the word "gourmet").

But what's coming to that demolished spot?

*Everyday Chatter

Yuppies are beginning to flee the city, because "anything would be easier than New York." [EVG]

Wall Streeters are now considered New York's "real estate pariahs" as co-ops and lenders reject them left and right. [NYT]

Meanwhile, Yippies hold on to their holdout hang-out on Bleecker. [CR]

New amenity: Beaver House offers "Beaver Butler" so you can watch girls pillow-fight each other in their underpants when you're not at home. [NYO]

Another take on Friday's Slacktivist protest and mixed feelings about Mr. Two Boots pizza. [NYO]

If you missed the Giglio celebration in Williamsburg, you can still catch a night dance on Thursday and another on Sunday. [GL] and [Feast Site]

Villager editorial takes on Ekonomakis and "temporary mansion" trend. [Villager]

Slacktivists Eat Cake

On Friday, the Lower East Side Slacktivists lived up to their moniker with an irreverently slackadaisical demonstration that began in front of embattled 47 East 3rd St. and ended up scattered to the winds across the summer night, still hungry for pizza.

Unlike the last demonstration, this time the police were prepared. They were on the scene before anything got started, complete with a paddy wagon, plenty of backup, and a narrow pen into which they herded the protesters--cupcakes, donuts, guillotine, and all. John Penley handed out snacks and sodas. People munched on pastries, muffling their cries of "Die Yuppie Scum."


let 'em eat cake!

"Who's in charge here?" called out one protester. "Nobody! We're anarchists," came the response. When it was time to march down Bowery, the head cop shouted into his bullhorn, "Time to get marching folks," and led the people along the sidewalk, accompanied by a moped motorcade, and more cops bringing up the rear.

The marchers stopped in front of the NYU dorm at 2nd and Bowery, chanted "N-Y-Fuck-U!" for a few minutes, then shouted at the Varvatos store, before ending up in another narrow police pen at the Bowery Wine Company.



The wine bar's owner, Chris Sileo, came out to greet the protesters as they jokingly chanted, "We want our pizza! Where's our pizza!"


chris promises pizzas to john

As he promised in the Observer, Chris told John that five pizza pies would soon appear. The crowd cheered. Satisfied, John headed down to Mars Bar for a beer. Other members of the mob stood around grumbling, "I don't want no stinkin' pizza," and "Don't eat it--who knows what they'll do to it." Someone else muttered, "At least in the old days we threw beer bottles."


not bruce willis

It must have been all the carbohydrates consumed, because this demonstration sugar-crashed fast. While more stops were planned, the crowd dispersed here. Some people went to Mars Bar. Some went on to shout at the Christadora. Some stayed at the wine bar to wait for their pizza and chat with Chris. Others, like myself, went home to watch TV.

The pizza never did arrive. According to NMNL's report, the police suggested that it not be ordered, because some protesters would likely just throw it at the Avalon, the wine bar, and its customers.

• More photos on my flickr
• EV Grieve's video coverage
• Neither More Nor Less coverage
  

*Everyday Chatter

Donuts and death threats, plus free pizza: Don't forget the Slacktivists demonstration tonight at 47 E. 3rd (and many, many, many more sites around the neighborhood). Get the full-on crazy scoop at Bob Arihood's NMNL.

...Ekonomakis responds and Penley promises no guillotines.

One NYU student asks the Slacktivists and "other folks upset with NYU: make NYU students your allies. They have more in common with you than you think." [PAP]

Miracles do happen: 57-year-old shoe store, Lord John's Bootery, is saved! [Urbanite]

More miracles: Woo-hoo, rollerskating at Coney! [GL]

St. Marks Cinema

Following up on my recent post about the Theatre Condos, I watched Jim Jarmusch's 1980 film Permanent Vacation, in hopes of getting a good look at the old St. Marks Cinema where Jarmusch was once an usher. Unfortunately, no exterior shots, but there were a few interiors. Does anyone remember these green and yellow walls?



A small popcorn was 75 cents and they had a machine that dispensed ice cream:



Permanent Vacation is a student film. It's pretty slow and not much happens. It is, however, a great record of the Lower East Side and "Nolita" back when it was a burnt-out wasteland.



The DVD also includes a German documentary from 1984, in which Jarmusch notes how much the city had changed in the 4 years since he shot the movie. He says, "A lot of places that we shot aren't even there anymore, New York has changed so much. It's kind of eerie."

He points out a new apartment building that he says looks like "a prison yard" and that replaced a field that once sprang up in a vacant lot he used in the movie.



Perhaps a kindred vanishing-city obsessive, he mentions the same loss in this 1992 New York Times article:

"See that big red building, it's like an apartment complex?" he says, pointing down Spring Street. "That didn't used to be there. I filmed scenes from my first film, 'Permanent Vacation,' in that lot when it was an empty lot. Then they built that building. There were these big signs that said 'Little Italy Restoration Association,' which spells 'lira.' " He chuckles dryly. "Hmph. Dubious."

While he was filming "Permanent Vacation" in an apartment on East Third Street, the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat took to using the set as a crash pad. "Every time we did a reverse angle, I'd have to drag Jean-Michel in his sleeping bag under the camera so he'd be out of the shot," he says. "He'd grunt and go back to sleep."

*Everyday Chatter

Scene at 2nd Ave and 10th St:
Woman: It's a new fro-yo place, hooray!
Man: Oh good. What's it say?
Woman: 16 Hindles. What's a hindle?
Man: 16 Hindles? That's a catchy name. Hey, let's go out for some hindles!
Woman: Ha-ha, yeah!


How do you know the Bowery has become the Vegas Strip? McNally, top-shelf drinkers, and women's shoes. And as for you people in wheelchairs, be warned, you are "history." [Colonnade]

Observe these rules for raising urban babies (and dealing with people who are raising urban babies) from one Park Slope parent to the rest. [BlogN] via [Gawker]

Cloning Bloomie? "At charity balls and board meetings, on putting greens and in telephone conversations, New York’s corporate titans are on the hunt: Michael R. Bloomberg will end his reign as mayor in 18 months, and they are desperate to find someone from their ranks to take his place." [NYT]

Put a toad in your hole at Myers of Keswick. [SEats]

Glad to see Irving Lederich's Truemart Discount Fabrics is going strong--and the word schmata still gets tossed around the place. [BlogC]

Does Florent's exit from Meatpacking signal its economic death? [NYO]

...Just as Meatpacking is designated a quarantined "No-Go Zone" filled with "smug Brits," "lumbering SUVs," and "women from Jersey" in stilettos. [Gawker]

A VNY reader sent in this shot of the Truffles condo in Tribeca and asks, "Who are the swine exactly?"

Mercer Street Books

With the recent closing of bookshops in Manhattan, I went by to check on Mercer Street Books. The clerk assured me they're "under no imminent threat" of closure. Which was good news. As they are "inching...towards a third decade," the store is well-stocked, with books overflowing the shelves and spilling into bins and onto carts. It's what one blogger calls "a beautiful disaster."



A steady stream of customers came in and out, buying and selling books, perusing records, and sifting through the postcard collection, which revealed some excellent vanished items, including a shot of the shuttered S. Klein, formerly of Union Square, and another of Belinda's Go-Go Lounge, formerly of Williamsburg (now a Triple-5 Soul).



Even with the clerk's assurance, I do worry about Mercer, as its surroundings have become the territory of mall-shoppers and fashionistas.



While I was there, a carefully manicured young man came in, carrying some sort of racket in a leather bag and shouting into his cell phone. After several minutes of distractedly walking the aisles, all the while shouting into his phone, he asked the clerk, "Can you do a query?"

"Um," said the clerk, "the books aren't on computer. What are you looking for?"

"I need to find Obsession," said the phone- and racket-wielding man, "the biography of Calvin Klein?"

They didn't have it.