The Last Three

As part of my series of Day Trips Outside the East Village, I ventured this morning to Astor Place, to see the new rhino sculpture called "The Last Three", by the artist duo Gillie and Marc.

Here is a picture:

The Last Three.

East Villagers have been flocking to this sculpture since it was unveiled yesterday — there hasn't been this much excitement since Basquiat was alive!

Here is a map showing how to get there from the East Village:

Directions from East Village.

Thankfully, it's not very far, and you get to exit from St. Mark's Place, the coolest street in the East Village!

#eastvillage #astorplace, #daytrips, #thelastthree, #stmarksplace, #sculptures, #gillieandmarc

East Village Walking Tour

If you want to know how cool the East Village is, apart from reading this blog there's no better way than by joining an organized walking tour!

When I saw this on Twitter yesterday morning, I knew what I had to do:

Walk & see the Village like never before this morning with our FREE Walking Tour! 11:30am. Meet 131 East 10th. More:https://t.co/CeUVlx8yr3 pic.twitter.com/UoKjVrlAtX

— Astor Place NYC (@AstorPlaceNYC) July 22, 2017

I know Astor Place is outside the East Village-proper, but hey, maybe they're like anthropologists — they might see coolness in things we take for granted!

I arrived at the designated meeting place, St. Mark's Church, at the designated time: 11:30. This was the crowd:

The crowd.

The tour guide was feisty, what we East Villagers call "a real character"!

There were two things she said she wanted us to know: New York was a Dutch colony, not English; and, the ice age brought a lot of stone to what is now Manhattan. She left out the East Village being built on a swamp, but… it's not a geography tour!

From St. Mark's Church, we made our way down Second Avenue, turned right onto St. Mark's Place, and across Third Avenue to Astor Place. I couldn't hear most of what she said — I was in the back of the crowd. Also, I was futzing with my phone a lot of the time!

I left the group as they made their way out of Astor Place, toward Greenwich Village. I have no desire to write about Greenwich Village — I'm not an anthropologist, after all!

#eastvillage #astorplace #secondavenue #stmarksplace #swamp #thirdavenue #tweets #twitter #walkingtours

St. Mark's Place Name Change

I was walking across St. Mark's Place this past Saturday, when I noticed something very peculiar.

Namely, what was once the main entrance into the East Village, St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue, is now the main entrance from the East Village into Astor Place!

Behold:

You are now entering Astor Place.

I, for one, welcome our new Midtown South overlords!

#eastvillage #astorplace #midtownsouth #stmarksplace #signs #thirdavenue

No Mosaic, Man

I was walking across St. Mark's Place recently, when I noticed the remains of a mosaic at the bottom of a lamp post on Avenue A:

Remains of a mosaic.

Normally, I would assume an art-loving East Villager made off with the mosaic, to decorate their apartment with! However, DNAInfo is reporting that the mosaics removed from Astor Place during the re-make/re-model are going to be re-placed.

Well, that's fine for Midtown South, but what about the East Village?

East Villagers cry foul!

#eastvillage #astorplace #avenuea #midtownsouth #mosaictrail #mosaics #stmarksplace

SantaCon

Every year in the East Village there is a celebration called SantaCon. I don't know what the Con means, but the Santa part means… dressing up as Santa Claus!

It's great fun and everyone loves it…

Spin The Alamo!

This year it will be held on Saturday, December 13. They haven't said where it will begin yet (it starts in one part of the city and moves all around throughout the day), but it's sure to come to the East Village at some point, if we're all Nice!

So hang your stockings and say your prayers 'cause SantaCon comes… December 13!

#eastvillage #santacon #astorplace #thealamo

Sculpture For Living

Every time I walk through Astor Place, I take a picture of one or both of the reflecty buildings there. There are just no bad angles! I'm going to have to start naming these posts by the date.

(It's true this isn't in the East Village, but you can see it from there!)

Of course, the one above-ground electric wire in the whole of Manhattan does hang just north of it! What are you gonna do?

Sculpture for Living.

The really cool thing about these two buildings is that when you look at them, you don't see the buildings themselves. You see multi-faceted reflections of the buildings, and sky, surrounding it.

It works when it's surrounded by concrete and brick buildings — a whole city of buildings like this would be weird! And maybe schizophrenic.

#eastvillage #astorplace #sculptureforliving

Astor Place Again

I'm really loving these buildings. I don't know why I didn't notice them before.

Astor Place, from Third Avenue

Actually, I do know why. It's because construction was finished during the Winter. In Spring, I was riding my Citibike to and from work every day. On Saturdays, I was busy, and on Sundays I was asleep. I just never made it over to this area.

Also, the pictures I saw never really showed off the reflections the way mine do. It's actually quite amazing how bad so many of them are!

I'm going to get as many shots of these buildings, from as many different angles, as I can, until I run out of angles.

Reflecty Building Again

The reflecty buildings over at Astor Place are just extremely cool! This is another view of the building I posted the other day, looking East:

Reflecty building.

This is another building I noticed today, across the street (southward) from the one above. You can see the Carl Fisher building to the right:

Another reflecty building.

I wonder what one reflecty building looks like reflected in the other? It must be like a house of mirrors!

Astor Place Mosaics Vandalized

Someone has been vandalizing the mosaics over in Astor Place:

An orange sign has contact information to help stop the vandalism. I'm not sure it's going to do any good though; a lot of people support the mosaics' destruction!

Reflecty Building

Over in Astor Place there's a cool, new building that's very reflecty:

Looking West.

You don't really even see the building itself, just the reflections of its surroundings. Maybe that's the idea — maybe it's not really there.