Benefit of living in the East Village:
Spectacular view of the Macy's fireworks while sitting in your window
Unfortunate consequence of living in the East Village:
High probability of not sleeping again until sometime in the middle of the week because it sounds like Zonko's exploded somewhere in the vacinity of 4th and C.
People are shooting off a lot of serious illegal crap, and all the M-80s are setting off all the car alarms which are making all the dogs howl, which are in turn causing peopel to lean out their windows and express their incredibly loud annoyance.
I'm almost charmed. But since I can really only hear out of one ear right now thanks to the above and my position in said window, not quite.