*Everyday Chatter

So what's up with the bar on 2nd Ave and 4th St? Why can't they decide on a name? And how much money are they spending on awnings? First it was The Bar. Then it was bra-dancing 2 by 4. Last month it became the supposedly upscale Ambiance. And now: E4olution?



"Bankers and brokers looking to escape the financial meltdown are scrambling to relocate their families, possessions and rarified talent far from Wall Street to places such as Florida, Chicago, Milwaukee, Virginia and Asia." [Curbed]

"Many in New York have delighted, at least a little, in a sense of schadenfreude over investment-banker woes, having viewed them as a greedy breed that helped homogenize and gentrify the city." [Times] via [EVG]

The economic downturn is good for the city's tailors. The mending upturn has come too late for Mili and Balabanis, but it may help keep Gino alive. [Times]

Fight to save Met Foods succeeds, the Clam Shell salads will continue to be sold for $3.99 each, and the Ratner's "R" will be preserved. And I'll still be able to buy my groceries. [Villager] via [EVG]

But the losses keep coming: Two Boots Pioneer Theater to shutter, thanks to rising rents in the EV. [NY] via [EVG]

Here I am, complaining about text messaging. [AMNY]

Farrell's Bar & Grill

This summer I went for a beer for the first time at Farrell's Bar & Grill in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. They were--and still are--celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, founded in 1933, the year Prohibition was lifted.



A man's bar, with few women in it, the place is spare and echoing, with a white pressed-tin ceiling and a wooden phone booth. Unlike other old bars, like Pete McManus or Julius' or Montero's, it isn't dark and cluttered with memorabilia. There are no black-and-white photos of the founders in their shirtsleeves, no dusty felt Dodgers pennants, no faded menus from the 1940s. In its starkness, it's almost anti-nostalgic. But that doesn't mean Farrell's embraces the new.

It's still an authentic old bar, a blue-collar enclave on the edge of gentrified Park Slope. Its customers wear firefighter and ironworker t-shirts with pro-union caps. They tell raucous, drunken, curse-filled stories around the bar.



But a subdued mood descended on Farrell's last week when the news came that owner Danny Mills leaped to his death off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, a bridge he helped build as an ironworker in the 1960s.

In 2006, The Times described Mr. Mills as "a sturdy sort, with the terse diction of the woefully unlubricated." The Brooklyn Paper says he was "known for his big smile, jovial demeanor and generous buy-backs." And the Irish Echo wrote of Farrell's, it's "not so much a neighborhood bar, some would argue, as the heart and soul of the neighborhood itself."

Apparently, for some reason, some locals hope for the demise of Farrell's. Writes one Brooklynian, "Unfortunately for those who, upon hearing this sad news, are secretly hoping that this means the end of Farrell's, it's my pleasure to inform you all that the bar will carry on like it always has."

Let's hope that's true.



The Brooklyn Eagle writes about Mills and the bar:

"In 1964, Mills, at age 23, became a bartender at the legendary Farrell’s Bar and Grill, at 215 Prospect Park West by 16th Street. In 1996, he became the owner...

Farrell’s was opened in a then-heavily Irish neighborhood in 1933 by Mike Farrell at the end of Prohibition, serving Ballantine and Knickerbocker beers at first. It has long been known for its drinks, food, socializing, beer served in Styrofoam cups, and famous patrons. Later, Bill and Eddie Farrell became the owners. In 1996, they sold their bar to their three bartenders, one of whom was Mills.

Among its many famous patrons in the 1970s was Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine, who broke the tradition of being chaperoned by a male and became a well-known customer. Famous newsmen Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill were frequent patrons."

Kim's on 1st Opens

Though the signs said yesterday was the grand opening, the big day is in fact today. There are festive balloons outside and everything inside (except accessories) is 30% off.



You might notice those Love Guru posters have been taken out of the window. The selection here is a Kim's selection, clearly geared toward smarties and cinephiles. They have an enticing Documentary section, where you will find some of my faves, like The Corporation and Grey Gardens.



Organized in true Kim's fashion, the movies are sorted according to director and genre--if genre includes Noir, Experimental, and, you might be happy to know, as I was, Sexploitation.

Also, oddly enough, the cashiers are friendly and smiley.

Remember, there are no more rentals in the Kim's universe. So go to the new Kim's and buy some movies. They also have vinyl and CDs.



The Kim's on 1st Saga:

• Goodbye to Kurowycky
• Celebu-chefs lose out--XXX to come?
• Kim's to move into Kurowycky spot
• Kim's Mediapolis closes
• Mondo Kim's to close--rentals vanish

*Everyday Chatter

"Mayor Bloomberg is morphing into our very own Vladimir Putin and Marty Markowitz into Brooklyn’s own low-rent version of Napoleon." [GL]

“The people of the city will long remember what we have done here today, and the people will be unforgiving,” Mr. de Blasio said. “We are stealing like a thief in the night their right to shape our democracy.” [CR]

"Me, I’m just writing this day down as one more reason to get out of NYC. The Billionaires, it would seem, really have taken over. And you, you have no say in what happens next…" [AngryNYer]

Who says the City Council's overturning of term limits is "disgraceful"?


When asked if she was threatened by Bloomberg or Quinn to change her vote, one councilwoman simply responded, "I don’t want to discuss it." Some cry foul play. [CR]

"the argument for extending the two-term limit for Mr. Bloomberg...is that the city needs someone with his financial acumen to help weather the fallout from the banking crisis. The biggest problem with that argument is that Mr. Bloomberg hasn't been very adept at managing the city's finances, even though he's had record revenues to work with." [WSJ]

Angry mob tells Bloomberg to "get the hell out of town" as he grinningly climbs into his giant SUV. [VV]

And, for your reading pleasure, if you haven't already had the chance, check out The Bloomberg Way--so you can spend the weekend arguing with friends and family who insist this is all a good thing.

*Everyday Chatter

The Cooper Union "communal hive" has sprouted giant wings:


Another Cemusa typo. First it was Bowery Street, now it's Frederick Douglass Blvd. [CR]

Silencing, cajoling, horse-trading, and arm-twisting--these may be appropriate tactics for a CEO and owner of a private company, but when an elected public official uses them, doesn't it sort of sound illegal? [Times]

Looking forward to Synecdoche, New York? Read an interview with Charlie Kaufman. [Gothamist]

Here's another peek into Nom Wah--any news about its reopening? [BPH]

No urinating on The Ludlow! [BBoogie]

Gowanus Wilderness

It must be in the air--Gowanus Lounge just visited the former (?) Whole Foods site as did I. Who can resist a hole in a fence on an abandoned lot turned wilderness? At the opening, with one foot in, a shiver runs through you. It's like standing at the edge of a zoo habitat and realizing the gate is wide open. You can't see the animals crouching in the weeds, but you feel their presence.



Cement silos, a glittering pile of scrap grabbed by giant mechanical hands, the rib cage of the viaduct silhouetted in the distance...

There is something about industrial wastelands that fires the imagination. Especially when they include graffiti, thick vegetation, and castaway toilets. The decaying and forgotten--these are haunted landscapes, filled with possibility and risk. The danger of nature unbridled, pushing back, erupting from concrete constraints. Who knows what is hiding there?



Blue Jake ventured in earlier this year and got a gorgeously eerie shot that includes the backside of the mysterious Coignet Stone Company building, recently landmarked. The building sits on the edge of the vast lot like a dessicated, once-splendid spaceship landed on a vacant moonscape.

As Brownstoner writes, the building "commands the attention of everyone who passes by it."

ForgottenNY recalls that this is the corner, "thoid and thoid," where the Brooklyn Dodgers were born.



And Laura Raskin at Brooklyn Rail dives in deep, putting it eloquently when she describes the building as: "crumbling and elegant, with steps that widen outward like open arms. An industrial wasteland of nothing surrounds it, as if it has been repeatedly left behind like a lost child in an empty parking lot. And there’s a slightly magical appeal to a building that sits on the corner of Third Avenue and Third Street."

An image of the Coignet Stone building in its former glory hangs on the wall of the Montauk Club, captured here:


photo: davidfg's flickr

We need haunted houses and weird landscapes like these. What happens to the imagination when everything is smoothed over, packaged, Xeroxed, and polished to a uniform luster?

When all of these places have been erased or tamed, where we will go to be inspired and challenged?

With Whole Foods possibly backing out, does that mean there are still some places left in the city that are too wild, too dangerous to be domesticated?

• See more pictures here

*Everyday Chatter

Is the city addicted to real estate? Check out the new book by Tom Angotti, "New York For Sale." Hey, it's the Bloomberg Way. [CR]

Mass evictions underway at The Chelsea. [LWL]

Kim's is getting so much love--The Observer and Nerve both covered the story. And now it's official: The new Kim's opens tomorrow, 10/23, on 1st Ave, according to the signs in the window.

That Recession graffiti on the 8th and University Capital One? It's been quickly and efficiently painted over...but not before making the cover of Washington Square News:


The neighbors and Community Board are not happy with the bank's sidewalk-hogging plywood. Writes one VNY reader: "The bank's intent to 'squat' on the sidewalk...to build on the footprint of the old BBQ's former outdoor cafe...is illegal and wrong. Your readers, rather than venting their righteous fury in impotent graffiti, could then write, call and email their council people, the state senator and the bank itself and tell them they do not want this bank illegally taking up the sidewalk."


More and more insane development to be wedged into the LES--and another house of worship is going synagondo, except it's a church this time. [EVG]

But hope yet springs: How do you stop a bar from getting a liquor license? Just show up and make some noise. Apparently, it works. [SLES]

Check out this new video about the 1939 World's Fair. [NYPL]

An illuminating article by Michael Gross about the transformation of Bond Street and its former 1970s life. [NYO]

While we're erasing the past, why not just erase unwanted memories from the brain, too? [yahoo]

In August I reported the 8th St. Salvation Army might be closing. Well, it's closed. Seems like bad timing--with the economy in freefall, we could use some more thrift: