East Village: 2nd Ave & 7th Street

I spent two hours - that's right, two hours - on a block in East Village Wednesday just observing, making lists, and getting a real feel for the place.

The first site you see when you step onto this block is a cafe/restaurant called Virage. Now, I didn't get to eat lunch that day and I was really tempted to stop by and get a quick bite to eat, but I also really wanted to walk around the block once before actually acting on anything...I think I spent an hour alone just trying to get around the whole block though. I got distracted by a lot of the things and kept flipping back and forth through my pages just to jot down quick blurbs from a conversation I just overheard or a thought that popped up into my mind when I saw all the varying sites from the copious amounts of graffiti to the incredible scrap metal statue a consignment shop by the name of Tokio 7 had out on display.

After looking back at my notes for the day, I think one can seriously spend an entire day here. There's at least four bars here, a hair salon, some sort of gallery, a nail salon, a convenience store, two theaters, a few restaurants here and there...and of course the consignment shop. Personally, the prices were still rather high for me but how cool is it to be able to buy Rodarte for about 120 bucks? If my friends ever visit me in NYC, I'm dragging them down there.

There's a lot I want to recap on but, ultimately, I'm going to save the best for the artist book I'll have to be making within the next month. So if I've caught your attention, then keep on the look-out! Or if you're in the area, head down to the block on East Village! Definitely worth checking out.