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Monday, March 31, 2003
Literature Update | 2:44 PM
So as it turns out there really is a new Eggers magazine, The Believer. Predictably, it looks utterly fascinating. The LA Times says it's already showing up in alternative bookstores. Anyone found it yet in NYC? St. Marks Bookstore, perhaps?
· The Believer [believermag.com]
· New Magazine has an Abiding Faith in the Good Book Review [latimes.com] thanks, mg
Another Reality | 11:06 AM
JVG steps up his coverage of the LES with a letter from the founder of Surf Reality, a local theater that's going under.
All I can say is times have changed. When I first moved here 10 years ago, the basement here at 172 Allen St. was a brothel. Hookers trolled the corner, the traffic islands and the side streets. Where Bluestockings Books now resides was a "crack deli". The building was also home to a pawnshop with dubious ethics.
· Below 14th: The Oversights [jvg.com]
Hope Springs Eternal | 9:38 AM
We're all young again on Opening Day, as we say a little prayer for our Red Sox and prepare for the first pitch at 5:15 this afternoon. We're ponying up for Extra Innings on digital cable ($139 for the season for a whole boatload of games) and checking out the Diamond Mind 2003 projections over coffee. The Diamond Mind folks simulate 50 seasons with their hyper-realistic baseball game, this year projecting the Sox with 101 wins. That's a massive number... though the Yanks net 104. But we have no fear. It is opening day, and anything is possible.
· Diamond Mind Projections 2003 [diamond-mind.com]
· Extra Innings [mlb.com]
· Sons of Sam Horn [ezboard.com]
Monday, March 24, 2003
When the Rooster Crows at the Break of Dawn Update | 7:20 PM
Quiet weekend for us after a big Spring Cleaning last week. (N.B. Final event took place in the Cloisters. Take that!) But all has not been quiet around the Lower East Side. Neighbor Margit reports:
We found a rooster outside our door last night! We actually took him in for a night before taking him to a shelter. You mean you didn't hear the crowing at 5:30am?! I've never heard anything so earth-shattering in my life. We now return you to regularly scheduled, uh, war.
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Battle Lines | 11:22 AM
Shit, I was warned about this. (JVG will really hate the giant report, with photos, from the 19th floor of the Surface Hotel, coming soon to this space.) Nonetheless, in a show of forming broad neighborhood coalitions, I will circulate in the East Village this evening, and the West Village tomorrow night. (Loyal readers are surely aware that locations above 14th are, sadly, verboten.)
· JVG.com Resolution [jvg.com]
· Second that Resolution [601am.com] this, from a man who can't spell my name correctly! The indignity! another rift healed!
Synagogues of the LES | 11:05 AM
A nifty virtual tour from Everything New York.
· Synagogues of the LES [everythingny.com]
Spring Cleaning Update | 10:21 AM
What better antidote to CNN than live music? A brief ranking of the musicians we've caught so far during Spring Cleaning:
1) The always amazing Marc Ribot at Tonic late last night. (Not to mention the jazz combo earlier in the evening that covered "Love Sick" off Time Out of Mind.)
2) DJ spinning obscure '80s tracks at Passerby late Monday night.
3) Random Irish bar band rocking the crowd at Flannery's early Monday night.
4) Open-mic musicians getting their folk on at C-Note early last night.
Tonight: East Village dive night! Among our stops will be downstairs at Nevada Smith's, where Darrah Carr Dance is hosting a benefit.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Corporate Insanity Update | 5:18 PM
Internal Memos just gets better and better.
· Star Wars Figurines [internalmemos.com]
· Professionality at work [internalmemos.com]
Spring Cleaning Update | 5:17 PM
Last night, Irish bar on 14th Street: At 8pm, one TV is tuned to Bush's speech. Four other TVs are tuned to ESPN's analysis of the NCAA men's tournament bracket. Begs the thought that war might be more popular if it could be structured as a 64-country field.
Monday, March 17, 2003
Subway Update | 6:11 PM
Grant Barrett has written a brilliant analysis of East Village subway culture. Must-read.
· An Error More Useful Than Accuracy [worldnewyork.com]
Gossip Roundup | 3:20 PM
Lower East Side: Manhattan's gossip hotbed!
· Abel Ferrara discusses an upcoming film project with Lilo Brancato at Bar B on Allen Street while Asia Argento and her girlfriends listen intently. [ Page 6]
· Elizabeth Spiers and friend have a close call with an i-banker at an unidentified LES bar. [ Gawker.com]
· The jingle of an ice-cream truck is heard on Stanton and Orchard. [ 601.am]
Spring Cleaning | 9:35 AM
It started with a vision by MB. Why, he wondered, must one trek all the way to Jazzfest for a week of music and revelry when there's so much available here in NYC? One thing led to another, and there we were sitting down with a tall pint and a Village Voice last week at Ludlow Bar of all places, scribbling on napkins. The result, the First Annual Spring Cleaning, begins today. Every night, a different neighborhood, leading up to the spring equinox. Throughout, adherence to this gameplan: Show up when you can. Take it easy when you can't. And take heart -- the moon is right where you left it.
Friday, March 14, 2003
Fashion Update | 2:51 PM
So Gawker is standing up to the legal department at Puma viz. this little ad. Pull up a chair; this'll be fun.
· Open Letter to Puma [gawker.com]
· The Fake Puma Ads [felixsalmon.com]
Gallery Update | 9:41 AM
We're pleased to announce the opening of the Jen Bekman Gallery, a new LES art hot spot on Spring Street near Bowery. There's an opening reception tomorrow night from 6pm to 8pm that's open to the public. Good times, one presumes, await.
· Jen Bekman Gallery [jenbekman.com]
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Howard Dean Mania | 11:33 AM
... at Essex on, yes, Rivington in, yes, the good ol' LES. (Credit to Denton for his ahead-of-the-curve notification of this seminal event.)
· Like Online Dating, But with a Political Spin [nytimes.com]
· UPDATE: The Inside Scoop on the Dean Meetup [Scott Heiferman via lightningfield]
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Phil Spector Update | 10:24 AM
Palmermix has revived an important story that Phil Spector almost had killed... or something.
· Spector and the AP Wire [palmermix.com]
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Perfect They're Not | 7:56 PM
More signs that all is not well at the Gray Lady. Yesterday, perusing the riveting Tomorrow in The Times column, our pulse quickened when our eyes cast upon the following teaser:
Books: 'Perfect I'm Not'
Michiko Kakutani reviews the book by the Yankees pitcher David Wells, which has caused problems for the player and the team with its comments about alcohol and drug use in baseball.
Today, we pick up the paper in search of said piece. But in lieu of what might have been the best book review ever, we see Kakutani has tackled Susan Sontag instead. (Sample wordburst: "the relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic and the meaning of the modern.") What a gyp.
· A Writer Who Begs to Differ . . . With Herself [nytimes.com]
WD-50 Update | 9:31 AM
Still posting stuff we didn't have time for last week, like this important correction from the New York Times:
A picture caption last Wednesday with an article about WD-50, a new restaurant on the Lower East Side, misidentified a dish. It was poached kumquats with star anise and Thai peppercorns, not tiger nuts with Thai peppercorns.
Jesus, this place sounds more psychedelic with every passing day.
· Correction [nytimes.com]
· Time to Face the Music [nytimes.com]
Tease Marketing | 9:30 AM
What is Spring Cleaning 2003?
Hamptons Update | 8:41 AM
Been in the Hamptons some as of late for professional and personal reasons, scouring the summer share market. Everyone says there's low-hanging fruit to be picked, but the first homeowner our broker approached about our little group renting their house completely flipped out. "We'll only take couples and singles," the family matriarch sneered, "if they'll agree to pay an additional $15 grand." Back to the drawing board... As for good news, Lizzie says she's coming back to the East End this summer, so all will once again be right with the world.
· Lizzie Grubman, Back on the Scene [newsday.com]
Monday, March 10, 2003
Subway Fire | 7:44 PM
A "small but stubborn" fire in the 2nd Ave. subway station caused some havoc this afternoon. No wonder my homeward-bound F skipped the stop.
· 11 Firefighters Hurt in Subway Fire [nynewsday.com]
· Subway Fire Forces Service Suspension [wabc.com]
Wisdom from Lovely Day | 10:48 AM
MM on the previously little-noticed link between blogging and cohabitation.
· Patience [cohabitationnation.com]
Real Estate Update | 10:18 AM
Catching up from last week... New York ran its annual real estate issue, asking the question, Will the bubble pop? (Answer: Yes. No. Maybe.) Other pertinent notes:
1) 1BR/Studios on the LES rent for $1100 to $2200 and sell for $150k to $350k. Sounds about right.
2) "Several new rental buildings are opening in the main district, between Eldridge and Clinton Streets, over the next few months." We've never thought of ourselves as main district before. Exciting!
3) "HOT SPOTS: In the Ludlow-Orchard axis, there's hipster bar Pianos and ever-trendy boutiques like TG-170. On Clinton Street, there's brucnh at Clinton St. Baking Co., drinks at the unpretentious Lotus, and dinner at WD-50, Wylie Dufresne's endlessly dlayed new restaurant, which might just be open by the time you move in."
4) RE: East Village: "The wild card: In a recession, the neighborhood could regress to its less tidied-up past."
5) RE: Nolita (personal to FOD's): "Don't forget the celebrities in Lafayette Street's airy conversions."
· Real Estate Guide 2003 [newyorkmetro.com]
· Neighborhood Report: Lower East Side [nymetro.com]
· Neighborhood Report: East Village [nymetro.com]
· Neighborhood Report: Noho and Nolita [nymetro.com]
Wisdom from Vermont | 10:04 AM
Waitress, 11:32am Sunday: "Even in Vermont, we hit a wall with winter. It happened last week."
Friday, March 07, 2003
Cross-Atlantic Rivalry Update | 9:06 AM
Micah Jayne, co-founder of the Prague weekly publication that served as the training ground for the new editorial inner circle at the New York Press, emails: "The Prague Pill, mentioned in Peter “Invent a Quote” Green’s New York Times column, is still alive and kicking despite the change in staff (some would say for the better...) We promise: no buttfinger. Anyway, your readers might be interested in a link." Yes indeedy. (Aside: Micah is also looking for a hard copy of the Koyen editor's letter we reproduced in brief. We threw ours out. Anyone have one to share?)
· The Prague Pill [pill.cz]
· Zdenek Adamec' Suicide Note [pill.cz]
Forget That Idea Update | 8:52 AM
While we dawdled this week, Gawker figured out our little mystery: rumored Eggers magazine The Balloonist is a book review periodical with the less intoxicating name The Believer. Bleh.
· The Ballonist is The Believer [gawker.com]
· The Believer Subscriptions [mcsweeneys yahoo store]
Monday, March 03, 2003
Film Update | 3:41 PM
Apparently, the lack of believable, on-screen representations of the Lower East Side indicts the entire Hollywood creative industry.
Q: Why don't we see the neighbourhood depicted on-screen in Raising Victor Vargas very often? I was struck by your comment in the pressbook that if you see the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York, it's usually in a shot of Matt Damon passing through.
Peter Sollett: I dunno, I don't wanna say something that will indict the entire film industry or Hollywood filmmaking, but... (long pause)
The likelihood of developing a story like this, in this type of environment, is slim. For a lot of reasons. Because the people who live in this neighbourhood don't look like the kind of people who draw mass numbers of audiences to theatres on opening weekend.
Who knew? (Memo to self: and just why haven't I seen Matt Damon passing through?)
· Circus Vargas: Film Freak Central Interviews Peter Sollett [filmfreakcentral.net]
· Raising Victor Vargas [yahoo movies] opens in NYC 3/28
· Raising Victor Vargas Poster [imdb.com] shot from the Surface Hotel roof?
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