Miracle on East 7th Street

I was walking across East 7th Street this past Sunday, when I saw this on the sidewalk:

Water spill in the shape of a heart.

It's a miracle — a water-spill on the sidewalk in the shape of a heart!

It's a sure sign that Valentine's Day is approaching… in the East Village!

#7th street #miracles #valentinesday

Shopping in the East Village

Shop till you drop!
I live to shop!
I shop, therefore I am!

People come from all over the city — nay, from all over the globe! — to shop in the East Village. Nowhere else can you find such cool things to buy as here.

These shoppers were walking down St. Mark's Place this past Sunday when they had to stop and take a break on the stairs of Search & Destroy, the retro-punk memorabilia store:

Shoppers taking a break.

I guess these are not the "shop till you drop" type, though, more the "shop till you rest" type!

I wonder if they saw that "Please Do Not Sit On The Steps" sign?

#eastvillage #searchanddestroy #stmarksplace

Highest Prices Anywhere

East Village Books, on St. Mark's Place, is an unusual store:

Unusual store.

Most stores advertise that you will pay the lowest prices for their wares. Other stores advertise that the price you pay will be competitive. East Village Books, on the other hand, advertises that the prices paid are the highest!

No bargains here.

Those scholarly libraries must be pretty valuable, but if this were my store, I wouldn't advertise higher prices. I would lure people in with promises of lower prices, then hook them with my higher-priced, high-quality goods!

Highest prices paid… in the East Village!

#eastvillage #eastvillagebooks #stmarksplace

DIY License Plates

East Villagers are a resourceful lot. If you tell them they could buy something that would make a job easier or quicker, they'll say "No thank you — I'd rather do it myself!"

The "do it yourself" ethos extends even to car license plates, as you can see from this picture I took this past Sunday, on East 7th Street:

DIY license plate.

It's hard to know if they did it themselves with regard to the license plate number, or if they relied on the DMV for that.

Getting by with less… in the East Village!

#eastvillage #7thstreet #diy

Inside the Former Continental

The Continental is — used to be — a bar on Third Avenue just above St. Mark's Place. They recently closed. Sources tell me it had something to do with the jukebox.

This is what it looks inside now:

Inside the former Continental.

You can see the culprit, the jukebox, in the back.

#eastvillage #continental #thirdavenue #stmarksplace

Cool Old Pickup Truck Ready to Sprout Roots?

Sources tell me that alternate-side parking has been cancelled in the east Village for Tuesday, February 3. Right away, East Villagers are wondering: when will the cool, old pickup truck move back to East 9th Street?

As you know, it is currently parked on St. Mark's Place, outside Fun City:

Parked on St. Mark's Place.

If you take a look at that parking sign, you'll see that there's no parking there from 9:00–10:30am on Tuesdays and Fridays:

A Tuesday spot.

That means it would have to be moved by 9:00am tomorrow, under normal circumstances — with alternate-side parking cancelled, it won't have to move now until Friday!

I hope it doesn't sprout roots!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #stmarksplace #pickuptruck #cool #cars #alternatesideparking

Keep Christ in Christlix

People might think that East Villagers hold dear to tradition, and they do! but it's also true that they're renegades who break with tradition.

I saw at Bull McCabe's, on St. Mark's Place:

XLIX?

First Christmas becomes Xmas, now this. Where does it end… in the East Village!

#eastvillage #christmas #superbowl #bullmccabes #stmarksplace

A Photo Blogger's Life

The life of an East Village photo-blogger is not an easy one — you have to be very patient, waiting for people to move out of the way of your shot. You also have to be able to bear great frustration, such as when you're about to take a picture and a car parks in front of your subject, or your subject moves. Things like this happen all the time.

Then there's the times when someone asks why you're taking pictures, or tells you you can't take their picture without their permission. Most times it's just easier to tell them I didn't take their picture! I tell them it wasn't them, but the <thing> behind them I took the picture of.

The worst is when you don't have your camera ready. Here are the most recent shots I missed:

• A seriously-disheveled man was walking across East 9th Street wheeling two bicycles. The caption of this would have been "At least one of these bikes is probably stolen."

• A man was holding a leash attached to a dog that was peeing, so that at the angle at which I was standing, it looked like the dog was peeing on the car! No caption necessary!

• Two girls walked by wearing identical green glasses. It was obvious they had just bought them, since they were laughing at how they looked. This is the type of glasses:

Green glasses.

This picture will stand forever as a reminder of another missed shot… in the East Village!

#eastvillage #photographers #9thstreet

More Activity at Manitoba's

I passed by Manitoba's on Avenue B yesterday, and noticed activity once again! Not only was the gate up at the main entrance, but it was up at the fire exit too, and the small, center window:

Gates up on both sides.

Here is a picture of the inside:

Inside Manitoba's on Super Bowl day.

You can see the television is on, but it seems to be a static screen.

I saw someone moving around inside, going down the steps by the front window, and then checking the lock on the front door.

I"m sure yesterday would not have been a big day for them, since punks don't like the Super Bowl, but they do like drinking on a Sunday… in the East Village!

#Eastvillage #manitobas #superbowl avenueb

BYOC

Space to sit down at a Super Bowl party is oftentimes scarce. These enterprising East Villagers took their own chairs with them:

Bring your own chair.

East Villagers love to sit!

#eastvillage #superbowl #3rdstreet