Wednesday, January 23, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

A photographic obit for a Tompkins Square Park character, one of a disappearing breed. [NMNL]

Help save the Bowery from luxury development. [SLES]

Juicy Couture's eye-catching window display grabbed me last week and also attracted the folks at Racked. They associated to rats and I associated to scat. In Freudian theory, money is feces. In this window display, money is being eaten. The ultimate yunnie dream? Remember, they do want to shit gold:


Take a look at Astor Place's famous musical note clock--and be sure to check out the link to some great pics of Astor back when it had a parking lot loaded with street vendors. Who was the last vendor to make that lot home? The porno man of Astor Place. [Bowery Boys]

Went to see Cloverfield this weekend--what a disappointment. Like the Times, "For a brief, hopeful moment, I thought the filmmakers might be making a point about how the contemporary compulsion to record the world has dulled us to actual lived experience, including the suffering of others — you know, something about the simulacrum syndrome in the post-Godzilla age at the intersection of the camera eye with the narcissistic 'I.'" But no luck.

Ooh, the History Channel is offering a DVD set: “The Apocalypse and Doomsday Collection.” [Times]

2 comments:

Bob Arihood said...

Jeremiah thanks for noting the obituary for Outlaw and emphasizing the point that the EV is changing as the regulars from the area pass away. But there is also another obituary right after Outlaw's .

This obit for Eddie Graham points ever so much more firmly at change in this part of town .

Eddie likely died because of malnutrition and exposure to the cold weather . This extended exposure occurred because off-site managers gave orders to the people on site to denie Eddie access to a basement in which he had found shelter from the cold during , at least , the last 10 winters .

The change that Eddies death points to is the fact that everything is becoming just another profit center to be managed ,often in the abstract as little more than an Excel page , and milked .

Considerations concerning irrelevent individuals that might be affected by these business school style idealized management decisions are simply irrelevent .

More and more here , all that counts is the bottom line and maximizing asset performance . To hell with people ...unless of course you can get lots of money from them someway , humane or not . .

L'Emmerdeur said...

There is another special on History, "Life After People", which shows just how quickly almost all traces of our civilization would disappear if we weren't around providing constant maintenance.

Some really amazing stuff about NYC and other cities. Apropos: the glass-and-steel monsters would be dominated by jungle-like vegtation and... feral cats.