Vanishing New York Backup

Standard Hotel exhibitionism inspires cover story on voyeurism in NYC. [ Metro ] The closing of Cafe des Artistes --"the death of an intrinsic part of old New York." [ NYT ] "We Live in Public" --remembering the silicon 90s, when our Webbed life today was forecast in an underground Soho bunker. [ NYT ] At Spike Lee's party in Brooklyn for Michael Jackson . [ Gothamist ] Slacktivists rally outside Christodora, asking to be adopted. [ SG ] The Howl Festival kicks off this week. [ BB ] Buying a bra on Orchard Street. [ HNY ]

Rally tonight with the Slacktivists at the Christodora. [ EVG ] Irrationally exuberant Brooklyn condos in danger. [ Gothamist ] The story of how Hell's Kitchen didn't become Clinton. [ CR ] More gunfire in the East Village . [ NMNL ] Michael Jackson's Neverland ride is for sale at Coney Island. [ ATZ ] Street art in E. Williamsburg. [ NYS ]

Young professional men who can't get laid are looking to hire "wing-women" to help them. [ HG ] The experiment to luxurify W. 8th St. may be coming to a crashing halt. [ Eater ] More public nudity hijinks --gone awry. [ Gothamist ] Meet the Man in the Van in a short film by Sean P. Dunne. [ EVG ]

I keep thinking about the sexual exhibitionism of the Standard Hotel guests and why, as much as it has captured the national attention , it isn't quite as compelling as one might hope. First, a quote from Penelope Green's 2007 New York Times article " Yours for the Peeping ," on the proliferation of glass towers in the new New York: " City life has always been to some degree a public performance, and one of its pleasures is the opportunity to catch a glimpse of other habitats, to watch the movie of others’ lives through a half-drawn curtain , as Jimmy Stewart did in 'Rear Window.' But in the same way overheard phone conversations used to be tantalizing until cellphone use reached saturation point — 'I’m on 14th and Fifth,' bellows the guy into his Bluetooth, and your ear — ogling other people’s apartments is no longer so appealing ..." In the old New York of Rear Window , we do catch glimpses. Of Miss Lonelyhearts and her candlelit su...

Twitter is for old fogies. [ NYT ] Queens bakery exporting to Alabama. [ Curbed ] More naked pictures of High Line show-offs. [ Gothamist ] Celebrating 3 years of Pour House pub crawls in the EV. [ EVG ] Kamp coins a new one: "smugavore" --for those self-righteous foodies out there. [ DK ]

Obama is reading Richard Price's LES novel , Lush Life. [ Slate ] Standard Hotel promises to do their best to stop the free nudie show . That should be interesting. Will they use nude-detecting cops on the High Line? [ Curbed ] For the love of a Red Hook slaughterhouse. [ Eater ] "...if Manhattan gets to have shitty overpriced bars with obnoxious, inconsiderate patrons and their friends from Boston, well goddamn it LIC residents should have the same rights." [ NYCB ] Guss' pickles get porny with Heeb. [ Grub ] Lucy's fans get sad when their favorite bar goes on vacation. [ EVG ] Yet another beating on 7th Street. [ NMNL ] The New Yorker's Nick Paumgarten writes and talks about Governors Island . [ GIB ]

They're not vanishing, just moving further east on Bleecker--all the way to Cornelia Street. Their new place at 266 Bleecker, across from the still-vacant Zito's Bakery, is set to open sometime this week . It's shaping up quick, with walls of bookshelves already half-filled and French doors that will open onto the street. the new place, "bookbook" Though I'm glad they managed to survive, I'll miss them from Bleecker's western end. There's one day of the week when my travels take me by Biography, and I always stop to browse and often buy among their open-air tables of great books at incredibly low prices. Luckily, they're not leaving this spot until January, and the two shops will co-exist until then. Rumors about their move began a year ago , when Kate/Jack Spade announced a takeover of their neighbor's spot. In June, the bookshop confirmed the rumor with signs in the window, posted here . Biography has occupied this prime corner for near...

Shuttered icon Vesuvio will at least remain a bakery--but will the angry neighbor be happy about continued food smells? [ Eater ] John Strong packs up his freakshow and leaves Coney. [ ATZ ] Mosaic Man attacked by drunken middle-aged men on Tompkins Square Park. [ NMNL ] On the scene of an EV murder . [ EVG ] Fat-unfriendly review of JC Penney draws ire from the Times. [ NYT ] How to beat Bloomberg . [ RS ] Keep time with the clocks of Yorkville . [ FNY ] Native name for Manhattan --and favorite of Walt Whitman --appears on subway sign. [ NYS ]

As I showed in my tour of the Meatpacking District's lost leather locations , what used to be The Lure is now Bagatelle, that site of infamous bacchanal brunches , where guys who work in finance get together with girls who work in fashion to flaunt the burning of their bail-out packages. Since I can't find any photos of The Lure, I thought it might be fun to pair descriptions of their Pork party along with photos of Bagatelle's brunch party. Perhaps some frisson will emerge from such a mix. All quotes are from Guy Trebay's 1999 Voice article The Other White Meat. What a difference a decade makes. photo: NY Times, Michelle V. Agins "If you've been living on Mars, you'll want to know that the Lure is a large and intentionally grungy leather and s/m bar in the meatpacking district with a permanently installed slave-training cage , handcuffs suspended from the ceiling , and a predominantly gay male demographic. Tonight's more various crowd stands as a kin...

Man on the street Tim Murphy works out with David Barton at the Astor Place "mega-gym palace," a place for people with style who "don't want to go to a place that looks very un-stylish." [ NYM ] Yet another peek-a-boo, I see you, shit-and-shower boutique hotel coming to town--and on the Bowery. [ EVG ] When yunnies attack (each other)! [ Gothamist ] Don't miss seeing Katie Couric spliced with Britney's bush --on view at PS 1. Apparently, it's good, old, kid-unfriendly fun. [ CR ] The guy who took a Meatpacking sex club and turned it into a luxury lounge is taking over the Hog Pit . [ Grub ] Who's painting portraits of Dash Snow all over downtown? from salim's flickr

I got an interesting comment today, saying that Krystyna, formerly of Five Rose's Pizza , "has semi-retired and now lives in Negril Jamaica where she still makes the best pizza on earth! You can find her at the 23-7 Bar on the beach in Negril happily making pizzas and sipping Pina Colodas! See you in Jamaica!" Could it be true? Krystyna had planned to return to the East Village after a vacation in Poland--has she really gone to Jamaica? And not the one in Queens. from my 5 Rose's post This "food and sports" blog states that: "23/7 is a sports bar owned by a New Yorker named John who said F*ck it, I'm moving to Negril. Its located right on the beach and has all the sports needs of Americans and Europeans... The New Yorkers will be happy to know that they moved a retired pizza lady from NYC out there to cook authentic NYC pizza available late into the night." I had to know for sure. I called 23/7 in Negril and spoke to co-owner John Maire ...

At Deitch Projects in Soho I wandered through Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe's "Black Acid Co-op." The Times called it "an immense, labor-intensive, maniacally contrived walk-through environment. A warren of some dozen rooms, interiors and passageways, it includes a burned-out home methamphetamine lab, a red-carpeted gallery of pseudo-artworks and a hippie haven." That sums it up, but the emotional experience of walking through the installation goes deeper. Quite simply, it fills you with delicious dread . Moving from room to room, stepping through holes hacked in the walls and, in one case, through the back of an open refrigerator, is to walk through a vivid dystopia , with all of that world's attendant anxieties. From a freaked-out wig shop, you go through a newspaper-strewn hall into a meth lab, into a trailer that's been burned from an apparent explosion. It stinks of charred plastic and foam. Another room is covered with filthy carpet remnants and ...

Another Burritoville rises from the dead --next to a former Burritoville! On 23rd and 8th Ave... If they all move back to their old vicinities, maybe the dead Bald Man spot in the EV will be a new old Burritoville? As the Brooklyn ice-cream wars rage on, Mister Softee says ice-cream haters tend to be "New Age parents whose kids can’t seem to do anything without them." [ NYT ] Welcome back Fedora ! [ Eater ] Reverend Billy makes the ballot for mayor of NYC. [ LM ] SuperDive's frattiness beloved by TONY. [ EVG ] Advertisers get even more obnoxious --as DirectTV is dropping these football-related "welcome mats" on everybody's doorstep across the Village:

Yesterday, I published a post on Zoe Beloff's "Dreamland" exhibit at the Coney Island Museum. Today, I follow up with an interview with the artist. (On 8/29 at 4:30, attend a discussion with Beloff at the Coney Island Museum .) In the book that accompanies the show, you say you have a long-standing fascination with Freud and Coney. How do you see the two going together? In many ways the entrepreneurs of Coney Island and the father of psychoanalysis were worlds apart. The amusement park owners and designers in Coney Island aimed to exploit or tap into the fears, desires, and lusts of the public for commercial gain. The fantastic rides and attractions of Dreamland, Luna Park, and Steeplechase clearly did this. From the Tunnel of Love, to the Insanitarium and Blow Hole Theater to Hellgate and Creation, even their names are richly evocative of primal urges repressed in daily life. Attractions like the Freak Show or “Burlesque by the Beach” continue this tradition. Freud, ...

Grieve has been following the controversial 7th Street Tumor --and now there's a For Rent sign in the window. Today it's the bedroom for two homeless girls and their friendly cat. Tomorrow, this 3,000 sf space may be the next obnoxious bar and restaurant to invade the street. Save Union Square from death by too much flare--just say no to TGI Friday's . [ Gothamist ] In chain stores per acre, the East Village makes the top 5 most chainified in all of NYC. [ Curbed ] And the chain stores keep coming as "the recession could have played a role in facilitating the chain expansion." [ CR ] Remembering an older Orchard Street . [ HNY ] And another old Orchard business dies. [ BB ] Get ready for Brooklyn's Michael Jackson block party. [ Gothamist ] How weird and scary is Hollister? Mike Albo lives to tell: "We needed to get out of there before we were trapped in this psychic brothel forever. I clutched onto him, and we battled our way past all the beautifu...

For all the deeply depressing events swirling around Coney Island this summer, there is one exciting event you should not miss: Zoe Beloff's "Dreamland" exhibit at the Coney Island Museum . As the press release states, "In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, artist Zoe Beloff has resurrected the forgotten world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society ." Piecing together bits of history found at flea markets and around Coney, Beloff informs us that the Society, housed in an office atop the Shore Theatre , was founded in 1926 and folded sometime in the early 1970s. It was made up of men and women, most of them working class Jews and Italians, excited by Freud's new ideas about sexuality and the unconscious mind. With an obsessive eye for detail and accuracy, Beloff brings the vanished Amateur Psychoanalytic Society to life through artifacts and ephemera. There are photographs and bios of its members (like...

Ghostly mural of Dash Snow , "East Village artistic rebel" , appears in Soho: A quick look at the closing of the Beatrice Inn and New York's noise wars. [ NYT ] "The terrace is not your living room ." A note to the noisy jerks of Ave A. [ EVG ] A peek inside the Crusader Candle Factory --where your 7-day prayer candles come from. [ FIB ] You're not the only one annoyed with the endless number of " petition-waving college students " on the sidewalks. [ NYT ] "After seven and a half years in office, Bloomberg, who is now sixty-seven, has amassed so much power and respect that he seems more a Medici than a mayor ." [ NYer ] Bloomberg lets slip he'll be Mayor Forever . [ Gothamist ]

On Saturday, for just one day, the rooftop of Gawker Media was open to the public to display "Mom and Popism," a collaboration between Gawker Artists and the storefront photography of Jim and Karla Murray . The duo's photos were blown up to near life-size, mounted on fronts, then enhanced with graffiti art, creating a kind of revised virtual New York . But the full emotional experience of Mom & Popism begins on the street level. The building is located on Elizabeth, one of the most jarringly gentrified streets in town . Where I used to eat hot bread straight from LaRosa's, where old Italian ladies used to sit on the sidewalk to peel potatoes, there are now high-end shops, multi-million dollar homes, and European investo-tourists. The only mom and pop left here is Albanese Meats , still open for business. At 210 Elizabeth, you walk up the stairs and through the Gawker offices, a vast and airy loft with curved brick ceilings and polished wood surfaces on which doze...

NYC really is turning into one big dorm/frat/sorority house --because today's newcomers admit they are terrified of the new and the different, and being alone makes them very anxious. Says one broker, they're no different than the immigrants who came through Ellis Island. You know, just more of those poor, huddled masses. [ NYDN ] What happens when you just want to complain but you're not sure why? [ Blah ] This interview, in which the self-proclaimed "high-class bitches" of Scores weigh in on politics, makes me really miss the old-school gals of Billy's Topless and the Baby Doll Lounge . [ BB ] Revisit the 1980s EV on flickr. [ EVG ] The Loews Village 7 has started showing classic films on Sundays . This weekend it's Casablanca. Next up--Hitchcock and more. Check out the schedule here : If you don't have the coglionis to enjoy Manganaro's in person , or if you just want to whet your appetite before your next trip, check out the Bourdain video...

After visiting the Shore Theater , Mermaid Avenue , the Shore Hotel , and Henderson's Dance Hall building, let's wrap up the tour of doomed Coney Island (though that's not an exhaustive list) with a property not owned by Thor: the Herman Popper Building . It was built by brewer Herman Popper and his brother sometime between 1890 and 1906 , first as a distillery and then as a tavern, says Forgotten NY . According to historian John Manbeck, via the Brooklyn Eagle, Popper opened the tavern on Surf Avenue "to better serve the Irish bars that sprang up on Coney Island’s Bowery, joining the German restaurants. Victorians crowded the streets, lubricated by a 'growler' or 'bucket of suds.' Irish waiters, who doubled as tenors, served a brew with a 'Coney Island head' on the beer —more suds than liquid—to unsuspecting rubes.'" 1932, NYPL Today, on the first floor where there was once a tavern, then a penny arcade, and more recently a Carvel ic...